Jeremy Shockey Rips Coach Coughlin

The mountain of onerous dialogue from Jeremy Shockey is beginning to outweigh his immense talent. It's time for the outspoken tight end to produce more and grumble less.

New York Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey is a monsterous football talent. He's big, strong, fast and has good hands. Most experts would consider him a top-five NFL tight end.

Shockey, though, needs to learn to shut his mouth and produce more on the football field.

After his Giants were humiliated by Seattle in week three of the 2006 NFL season, Shockey openly criticized his coaching staff, saying his team was outcoached and adding: "Write that down."

For his part, Shockey caught four balls, even though his team played from behind all game and his quarterback, Eli Manning, made 36 pass attempts.

On the season, Shockey has 11 catches in three games -- not huge production from a guy who should be the primary target in a good passing offense.

Shockey needs to learn to shut his mouth and play bigger on the football field. There are enough talkers in football -- I sense another Terrell Owens reference -- and many of them are solid producers on the field.

Although he may not be the most personable guy you'll ever meet, or the greatest coach, Giants leader Tom Coughlin is a highly-respected NFL coach. All teams get throttled from time to time, and players running their mouths about the coaching only worsens an already bad situation.

The Giants have a lot of talent, and if Jeremy Shockey wants to be part of the solution, he should simply shut up and play football.