Bradshaw looking forward to season

BLUEFIELD, Va. — Winning a Super Bowl does something to a person. It can make a player content in his accomplishments or hungry for greater things.

Ahmad Bradshaw falls in the second category. After playing a key role in the New York Giants’ championship team in 2007, he had a disappointing sophomore campaign. He went from averaging 8.3 yards per carry to sitting on the bench behind the talented duo of Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward.

“For me, it was like a get-through season,” Bradshaw said during an event last Saturday to promote his upcoming football camp. “With what I had going, you know, and with how they were using me in the games and whatnot, I just have to go with the flow. I would love to be out there more than everything as much as possible.

“You know you’ve just got to go with the flow and I had two veterans in front of me. So that just set me back and just to sit back and watch them helped me. It made me stronger in different ways, both mentally and physically to get out there and just to be ready this year and know it’s a big year for me.”

While Bradshaw was sitting, Jacobs and Ward were powering the Giants to the best record in the NFL. Jacobs carried the ball 219 times for 1,089 yards. Ward rushed the ball 182 times for 1,025 yards, making them the fifth pair of backs on the same team to surpass to the 1,000-yard mark.

Bradshaw only got 67 carries for 355 yards and spent his time on the sideline watching his teammates.

“...One of them backs has been one of the better backs in the league for four or five years. There’s just always something that you can learn from those guys,” Bradshaw said. “They’re learning, too. So they learn off of me. We learned off each other last year and the year before that.

“So it was always a good thing being behind them just to learn different things. You learn patience with them. You learn a hole to hit and when you don’t have any more just to get upfield. With Jacobs, he’s a hard-nosed guy. He’s one of those type of guys. So you learn different techniques being out on the football field.”

Bradshaw’s season as a backup may be a good thing for the Giants. During the offseason, Ward signed a four-year $17 million contract with Tampa Bay, clearing the way for the third-year back from Marshall.

“I’m supposed to be getting that this year, getting enough playing time this year,” Bradshaw said. “So I’m working hard just to be prepared for that. It’s not even that if I do get the chance or if they throw me in there. Anymore it’s ‘I gotta be ready to go.’

“The fact is the last two years they haven’t used me to a premier back like I’ve wanted. But this year I think is going to be a good year for me and hopefully I can take advantage of it and try to take this offense over.”

The Giants will be relying on that if they make another run to the playoffs. New York won 11 of their first 12 games to begin their 2008 campaign and became Super Bowl favorites. But they lost three of their last four and were eliminated in the divisional round of the playoffs by the Philadelphia Eagles.

Bradshaw says the experience left a sour taste in their mouths.

“It was devastating for our team, just knowing that we had a chip on our shoulder last year and we knew we could do it last year,” he said. “We knew we’d be able to take it all the way last year if we had everyone and everything in place. Once one thing fell out of place, everything goes downhill.”

Many thought that one thing was the incident where Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg at a New York nightclub on Nov. 28, 2008. The incident garnered tremendous media attention and Burress was subsequently suspended by the team for the remainder of the season, then released.

Bradshaw sees it differently.

“You can’t blame it on one thing with us,” he said. “That was just something that tragically happened, something that we couldn’t do nothing about. The team had to move on and it’s just something you’ve got to look past. You’ve got to look for your team to step up in different predicaments and that’s what we had to do.”

But it was what they were unable to do.

“Stuff happens. I happens so quick, you just never know. We can’t blame it on just one thing,” Bradshaw said. “We’re still a team regardless and we have backups that can do the job when anybody gets hurt. We always blame it on our team. We never blame it on one cause, one thing that happened. We always blame it on our team and that’s what it was.”

The experience left the Giants with the need to prove something and hungry for redemption.

“We have a chip on our shoulder this year,” Bradshaw said. “Just how we ended last year, knowing all the situations that we went through last year, everything the team went through and different players. I’d say we’ve got a chip on our shoulder this year to go out and prove what we couldn’t do last year. We know it’s a big year.”

Bradshaw is just as hungry.

“This is one of the biggest years of my life,” he said. “Opportunity-wise, football-wise, I think I’ve just got to take advantage of the opportunity.”

— Contact Jed Lockett

at jlockett@bdtonline.com

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