Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page C05

THE HARTFORD COURANT SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2011 C5 SP RTS GIANTS PATRIOTS -M Playoffs Finally Back In Sight Drought Follows Four Straight Postseason Berths JIM ROGASH GETTY IMAGES FORMER UCONN HUSKY Donald Thomas (right) celebrates with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady last week. Thomas At Home In New England NICK LAHAM I GETTY IMAGES GIANTS WIDE RECEIVER Hakeem Nicks has 197 career receptions, but no career playoff appearances in New York. By TOM ROCK Newsday EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -How long has it been since the Giants made the playoffs? As of Sunday's kickoff, it will have been 1,085 days since they lost to the Eagles at home in the divisional round on Jan. 11, 2009.

So much has happened since then. The stadium where that game was played was knocked down and replaced. Plaxico Burress went to jail for almost two years and was released and came back to play football. An NFL lockout loomed, transpired, and was resolved. Brett Favre has retired three times.

"It's been a long stretch," tackle Kareem McKenzie said of the two fruitless, restless, inactive postsea-sons the Giants have had to watch from home. "No one would have imagined that" The Giants on Sunday will try not to make it three straight years without a playoff appearance. A win will get them back to where they were for four consecutive seasons in an era when the postseason seemed to be preordained. "When I first came in, I was in the playoffs every year," Brandon Jacobs said of his first four seasons. "It has been a very long time for this organization that has not shown that New York logo in the playoffs.

That is what we are striving for and what we need to get." Wide receiver Hakeem Nicks was drafted by a Giants team that had won a Super Bowl against the Patriots and then finished 12-4 the following season to earn the top seed in the NFC. Of course he figured he'd have played in a postseason game by now. He has not. "I hear from older guys all the time that playoffs are hard to come by, so when you get the opportunity, take full advantage of it," Nicks said. "The opportunity is available for us right now, better than it has been since I've been here, so we just have to do it." Some, such as Nicks and veteran David Baas, who played his whole career with the 49ers and did not play in many meaningful Week 17 games, never mind playoffs, see this as a first opportunity to reach the postseason.

Others, such as McKenzie, know it could be their last. The right tackle will be a free agent at the end of this season. A 32-year-old veteran of 11 seasons who saw the way the Giants unceremoniously parted with veterans Shaun O'Hara and Rich Seubert and Former UConn Lineman Earning His Playing Time By JULIAN BENBOW Boston Globe FOXBOROUGH, Mass. It took him a couple of series to settle down. Donald Thomas hadn't played a regular-season game in two years.

Suddenly, last week against the Dolphins, he was starting at left guard for the Patriots against the team that drafted him. "It was crazy," Thomas said. "You're thinking, What if I get to start against my old and then it happens." The faces were familiar. Randy Starks, Kendall Langford, Paul Soliai. "Every one was exactly the same from when I left," Thomas said.

There was some chatter during a TV timeout after the second series, but UP NEXT: Bills at Patriots, p.m. Sunday how tepid the other 31 teams were to sign them, he's aware of what is at stake for him and the team. "Given the nature of the business and the changes that happen from year to year, if you have an opportunity, it's best that you seize it," he said. The Giants have that chance. Although this technically isn't a playoff game against the Cowboys, the stakes are basically the same.

The winner moves on. The loser does not. The Giants have not played in a game like that since, well, the playoff loss to the Eagles after the 2008 season. "It seems like years, which it is years, but it seems like a lot longer than it actually has been," Justin Tuck said. "Obviously, that's why we play, to get an opportunity to play for the Super Bowl.

To have that opportunity, you have to make the playoffs." They've gone two seasons without that chance. "It would mean a lot," Nicks said of advancing to next weekend. "I think that's what we're shooting for as a team, that's our team goal. Every guy in this locker room wants to go deep into the playoffs and beyond that And we control it We control our own destiny. We have to prepare well, play well, and go out there and do it" RONALD MARTINEZ I GETTY IMAGES JASON PIERRE-PAUL (90) blocks Dan Bailey's last-minute field goal attempt to preserve the Giants' win at Dallas on Dec.

11. UP NEXT: Cowboys at Giants, 8:15 p.m. Sunday 'Obviously that's why we play to get an opportunity to play for the Super Bowl. To have that opportunity, you have to make the playoffs." Giants defensive end Justin Tuck decided to go to UConn solely for academics. One problem.

"You go from being an athlete your whole life to just being in class," he said. "I was bored out of my mind." He went to a couple of UConn football games his freshman year. He saw players around campus. One day, a few of them were in the gym playing basketball. They looked at him 6 feet 4 inches, 310 pounds and the questions began.

"You go to school here?" "Yeah," he said. "Why don't you play football?" He told them the story. They said, "You're bigger than a lot of the guys on the team already. You should try out" He thought about it, and decided to walk on. From there, it was a whirlwind.

He went from the scout team to starting at guard to going to the Hula Bowl, then the East-West Shrine Game, then the NFL combine. Then the draft. "It happened so fast," he said. "The season flew by. I was having a good year and it was, like, easy.

I was actually surprised." The injury in Miami was the first time he had seen a red light. He spent six weeks in a cast, six in a boot. "A lot of people don't come back from that injury," he said. He had every intention of coming back better, stronger. The Dolphins won the division title that year.

Thomas wasn't on the field but he was around so much that the year again flew by. He was cleared to lift weights in the spring, then during the second week of workouts he tore his pectoral muscle. "Freak accident," he said. "I'm like, Am I Thomas was worried. He recovered quickly, was cleared the week before training camp in 2009, and played in all 16 games, but because of an ankle injury only started 12.

But things weren't the same. The next year, the Dolphins drafted a guard in the third round. He was buried on the depth chart, and eventually released. "It hurt," he said. "It hurt my pride more than anything." Things began to turn for him in training camp this year with the Lions.

When the preseason ended teams were interested, including the Patriots, who had Thomas on their radar during the 2008 draft. "Definitely, we had interest in him," said coach Bill Belichick. "After watching in Miami and going down there and really winning the starting position and then being available and all that, we had a chance for him this year. I think it's worked out well." With left guard Logan Manldns battling a strained medial collateral ligament, Thomas's role may increase. "I'm excited for Donald Thomas," said right guard Brian Waters.

"I'm excited for those young guys who really stepped up." Thomas, now 26, feels like a veteran, and regardless of the situation he faces goal line, two-minute drill he's prepared. "You control what you can control," he said. "You can't control everything." JETS Ryan Wants Coordinator Back By RODERICK BOONE Newsday UP NEXT: Jets at Dolphins, 1 p.m. Sunday Thomas couldn't bring himself to take the trash talk seriously. "It was weird because I was so used to going against those guys in training camp every day," he said.

"I was just like, 'Man, shut up. You're just running your mouth. I know you. We've hung out together. You've come to my house to play video games.

Shut It was cool, though." There was a time when Thomas was the best-kept secret on the Dolphins' offensive line. One injury changed that. It was the first game of the 2008 season, the first game of Thomas's career. He was a sixth-round pick out of UConn with upside who had come in and started every preseason game. He had a connection with coach Tony Sparano, as both had roots in Connecticut.

Sparano liked the way Thomas worked. So when the Dolphins opened the season, Sparano said the right guard spot was Thomas's to lose. Of all plays, it happened on a field goal attempt. "I don't know exactly how it happened, but you see my knee came up, then you see my foot pop up, and then you see me try to put it back down and it pops back up again," he said. "I still see it clear as day right now." He continued playing with his left foot pointed outward, pushing off of it sideways.

He was hobbling more than he was running. "It was completely torn," Thomas said. He had never been seriously injured. Maybe a fractured knuckle from his baseball days or a sprained ankle. He was told the next morning he needed surgery.

Thomas played two games of high school football. His school, Career Magnet, didn't have a team. He played two games for West Haven High, before it was determined he couldn't play for a school other than his own. He became a power-hitting first baseman instead, but when he didn't get the scholarship offers he wanted from colleges, he team. Leonhard, recovering from Dec.

14 surgery to repair a torn right patellar tendon, is in the final season of a three-year, deal. "That's coming on us soon and not quite under the circumstances that I would like to happen," said the safety, who recently welcomed son Reese Bentley Leonhard. He made it clear he prefers to stay with the Jets. "I'd love to be here," he said. "I've really enjoyed my time here." Extra Points The Jets named TE Dustin Keller as the club's 2011 Walter Payton Man of the Year.

The winners of the Jets' team awards voted on by players: CB Darrelle Revis (Curtis Martin Team MVP), RB LaDai-nian Tomlinson (Dennis Byrd Award for Most Inspirational Player) and Brandon Moore (Ed Block Courage Award). FLORHAM PARK, N.J. Rex Ryan isn't completely sure Brian Schot-tenheimer will be back with the Jets next season. But not for the reason one might be thinking. "Obviously, if he gets a head-coaching job, then 'see you And I'll be happy to see that," Ryan said Friday of his offensive coordinator.

"So do I expect him back? It's probably 50-50 on that because I think there's an opportunity for Brian to get a head-coaching job this year. I thought that the first two years, but it wasn't to be. But he certainly would be a qualified applicant to be a head coach, that's for sure." Asked what will happen if Schottenheimer isn't offered a head-coaching gig somewhere, Ryan said: "Then I expect him back." Leonhard Hopeful Jim Leonhard knows he'll be suiting up for someone in 2012. He just hopes it's for the same MARK L. BAER I US PRESSWIRE DOLPHINS RUNNING BACK Reggie Bush surpassed 1,000 yards for the first time in his career.

Bush Sidelined For Season Finale Tribune Newspapers MIAMI The Dolphins will have to overcome one final obstacle before the end of the season. On Friday, interim coach Todd Bowles said running back Reggie Bush will not play in Sunday's game against the Jets because of a right knee injury. He suffered the injury late in the fourth quarter of last Saturday's loss to the Patriots. "He's not going to play," Bowles said. "The knee hasn't been responding, so we're going to sit him down." The injury will cut a career-best season short for Bush.

In his first season with the Dolphins, he surpassed the mark, finishing with a team-high 1,086 rushing yards. The Dolphins are expected to turn to rookie Daniel Thomas to fill in for Bush. Thomas, who has missed three games this year because of injuries of his own, has made just one start this season and it came on Nov. 13 against the Washington Redsldns. "I just have to be ready and that's how I prepare myself in practice," Thomas said..