Is Antrel Rolle ready to be a leader for the Giants defense?

There's no pun intended there, by the way, although how New York's vibrant Irish community respond to the man who  ended Ireland's World Cup dreams with his own 'Hand of God' moment could be  fascinating.

But Henry, the former Arsenal and Barcelona striker, is only 32, a player in  his prime who could still do a job at many a Premier League club. He is on  nothing like the £6m-a-year that lured Beckham to Los Angeles in 2007 and has always said he wanted to end his career across the pond. It is something of a  coup for Major League Soccer to have him here.

The problem is, mainstream America hasn't quite realised this yet. Henry's  Kevin Boss image is plastered over a disused warehouse alongside the outpost that is the walkway to the Red Bull Arena, but there are no billboard posters of him splayed over skyscrapers in central Manhattan.

A television interview on Fox 5 on Tuesday was nothing short of cringe-worthy. To be fair to the Frenchman, he  remained remarkably composed in the light of a question which began: 'So, you've just won the World Cup…' The female host thought he was Spanish.

Let's pass this off as two presenters being hideously unprepared but, the fact  remains, the USA is still disenchanted with the beautiful game. And this after  a summer that has seen the men's national team within an extra-time goal of  making the World Cup quarter-final.

In Wednesday's edition of the New York Times, for instance, Henry didn't get a  mention. Ahmad Bradshaw In fact, there were more words devoted to 'horseshoe pitching' –  which, somehow, made the front page – than 'soccer'. In the bookshop next to Madison Square Garden, there were only fractionally more books on soccer than  lacrosse.

Unsurprisingly, both topics were vastly outnumbered by American  football, baseball, hockey, basketball and golf. The only football-related autobiographies belonged to Beckham, Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane. Hardly an up-to-date collection.

A few days old, but check out Paul Schwarz' reaction to CC Browns complaints about the Giants football jerseys the other day.
Summer questionnaire series with Hakeem Nicks, in which he cites Sinorice Moss as the leader amongst the Giants receivers. Makes you realize how young this group is, when Sinorice is the veteran.
Speaking of Nicks, FF Toolbox weighs in on the "battle" between him and Mario Manningham for the #2 WR spot. I don't think it's going to be much of a battle - unless Nicks is really bad or Manningham is really, really good in camp, I think Nicks will be lining up opposite Steve Smith on opening day. That said, I think both of them are gonna get plenty of chances to catch the ball and make an impact this season.

The G-Men surprisingly failed to significantly upgrade the LBs in the offseason, meaning either Jonathan Goff or fourth-round rookie Phillip Dillard (Nebraska) will have to be the real deal in the middle, with Clint Sintim and Michael Boley on the outside. On the back end, the Giants jerseys are looking for big things out of $37 million safety Antrel Rolle, and will be eager to gauge how well former first- rounder Kenny Phillips can rebound from a career-threatening knee injury. Offensively, the big story is William Beatty's ability to transition to left tackle, which will affect David Diehl's possible move into a left guard battle with Rich Seubert. Eli Manning's reps will likely be limited during the preseason, which will give the Giants and their fans plenty of opportunity to assess the work of backups Jim Sorgi and Rhett Bomar. On special teams.