And on the first day . . . Osi didn’t show.
Osi Umenyiora, as expected, was not there yesterday as the Giants reported for the first day of training camp at the team’s practice facility, officially making him a holdout as the players gathered for physicals, conditioning running and meetings.
Every day Umenyiora misses will cost him $30,000 — the NFL-mandated holdout fine, nearly double last year’s maximum. It was thought players would have a one-day grace period before the fine took hold, but that is not the case.
The Giants’ first practice is scheduled for tonight. The Giants placed Umenyiora on the reserve/did not report list. This has the potential to get ugly and could lead to Umenyiora forcing a trade.
However, this is not expected to be a prolonged holdout. A source close to the situation last night said Umenyiora will not show up today, but “He should be in soon.”
“Osi’s an excellent player, he’s a part of our team, he’s under contract, he gives us a great chance to win,” coach Tom Coughlin said. “What I would like to see happen is Osi come in, sit down and talk to Jerry [Reese, the general manager] and then decide he wants to be a Giant and make a difference on our team.”
Umenyiora is angry that Reese has not lived up to a promise the defensive end claims was made to him. In a sworn affidavit as part of the antitrust suit against the NFL, Umenyiora stated, “Mr. Reese told me that two years from the start of the 2008 league year, if I was currently playing at a high level, we’d either renegotiate my current contract so that it would be equal to that of the top five defensive ends playing or I would be traded to a team that would do that.”
Though Umenyiora tried to downplay the accusation against Reese — “I never said anything crazy about Jerry Reese,” Umenyiora told The Post last month — it is hard to dismiss a player basically calling his general manager a liar.
“I always call that offseason chatter, and that’s not a big deal for me,” Reese said.
But Reese did not address whether he made the promises that Umenyiora claims.
“I am not going to come out in front of the media about a private conversation I had with a player,” Reese said.
Late in the 2005 season, Umenyiora signed a six-year, $41 million contract extension that still has two years remaining ($3.1 million in 2011, $3.97 million in 2012). He wants a significant raise.
Reese said he has not spoken to Umenyiora. Teammate and good friend Justin Tuck is often in contact with his line-mate, but not for the past few days.
“Obviously if we’re out there tomorrow and he’s not there you’ll feel the effects of it because he’s our starting right defensive end,” Tuck said. “When you lose a guy of that caliber you’re definitely going to feel the effect of it.”