Giants safety Tyler Sash met with Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday to appeal his four-game suspension for Adderall use. The second-year safety was disappointed to learn that his suspension was upheld and that he will be away from his team for four weeks. Sash talked about the suspension and much more during a phone interview with Larry Brown Sports on Tuesday.
I spoke with Sash about his signature watch Deuce Brand recently released. Deuce Brand makes many sports-themed watches, and Sash’s is specially-designed to include the Giants colors, Sash’s number 39, and a replica Vince Lombardi Trophy to represent the Super Bowl the team won last year. We previously covered the Jordan 11 shoe birthday cake his girlfriend had made for him, so we know he’s a big fashion guy. He confirmed that is the case.
“I’ve always been a big shoe guy,” Sash told LBS. “Everybody has their own sense of style. There’s a difference between fashion and style, and my style is who I am, and everybody has their own style.”
So who on the Giants has the best style?
“Who has the most money?” Sash responded, jokingly. “There’s a few guys. Terrell Thomas has a good style, Victor (Cruz), Justin Tryon, (Justin) Tuck has his own style. Everybody has their own thing they do that sets them apart from others.”
Sash didn’t want to call anybody on the team out for having the worst style, but he did mention Henry Hynoski’s name knowing that he could get a rise out of his pal by saying the fullback is the least fashion-conscious.
Our conversation turned to his four-game suspension.
“Of course I was disappointed,” he said. “Anytime I can’t be with my team [it’s disappointing]. It’s going to be tough not being with my team and not being in the building. Obviously the games are awesome to play in, but the best is being with your teammates and your friends each and every day and doing something that you love to do. That will be taken away from me for a month, but I’ll have a month to rejuvenate myself and come back stronger than ever.”
I asked Sash if he thought the suspension was fair (teammate Andre Brown had his Adderall suspension lifted, and another player had his Adderall suspension reduced by a game).
“I don’t think it’s fair, but I have to abide by the rules. The rules are the rules. I’ve accepted it and know I have the four games and I’m going to come back better than I was before.”
Sash is still looking forward to having a role on the team — defensively, special teams, or otherwise — when he returns. He thinks the violent nature of the game will create some opportunities.
“There’s opportunities on defense and there will be opportunities on special teams. Especially in football today, you never know your last play is going to be. I don’t want anything to happen to my teammates with injuries, but there’s always injuries in sports,” he explained. “If that means I come in and play on defense or special teams, I’m going to help in any way I can.”
Even though the Giants won the Super Bowl last season, they were only 9-7 during the regular season. That’s an area where Sash believes the team can improve.
“We can play [like we did in the playoffs] each and every week. It comes down to coming out to play each and every week. I know that sounds cliche, but sometimes people don’t put as much effort or intensity into one play, and you can get beat.
“We have to play thinking ‘this is for the playoffs’ or ‘this is to go to the Super Bowl’ — that’s how we have to play at all times,” Sash continued. “That’s something that we’re striving for.”
Several Packers made what seemed like disrespectful comments over the offseason when they said they felt they beat themselves in the playoffs, rather than crediting the Giants for beating them. I asked Sash for his response to Green Bay.
“I think (Justin) Tuck said it best. If they lost it themselves, then whose fault was it? We played, they played, and we came out on top. That’s basically it. People can say whatever they want, but at the end of the day it’s about who has the win and who has the loss.”
The Giants carried that momentum into the NFC Championship Game against the 49ers and then the Super Bowl against the Patriots. I wondered how confident they were leading up to the Super Bowl. Sash indicated there wasn’t much doubt.
“We played the Patriots two times — once in the preseason and once in the regular season in Foxboro — and we had beaten them twice, so we were pretty confident going into the game.”
Many teams find it difficult to repeat as champions because they don’t have the same motivation the year after winning it all. I asked Sash whether that was the case with the Giants.
“We want to win again. We want to carry those last six games from last year into this season. These guys are hungry and we know we have a good team.
“Defense wins championships and all three aspects of the games have to play together. Obviously our defense struggled at points last year, but the last six games of the year, we gave up only about 14 points per game. You’re going to win a lot of games with Eli Manning as your quarterback giving up just 14 points per game.”
I asked for Sash’s thoughts on the Prince Amukamara cold tub video that went viral, but he didn’t have much of a response because he said he hadn’t seen it. I doubt whether that is true, but he did a good job avoiding comment on a controversial topic, which is probably what the team instructed him to do.
Unfortunately we forgot to ask Tyler for the back story on his Tinker Bell blanket at training camp. Maybe we’ll be able to find out next time.
Below is a video of Sash showing off his Deuce Brand watch:
