So I can’t blame Justin Tuck for leaving the Giants for the Raiders and his new two-year, $11 million deal ($5.5 million guaranteed).
However, The Post has learned, Justin Tuck felt he had to leave — because the Giants made him an insulting offer he could refuse.
This was a sad day for Big Blue, and bittersweet day for Tuck, who left his heart in New Jersey and New York because, according to those close to him, he felt disrespected by a low-ball offer from the team he loved.
Tuck put on a happy face in Oakland on Thursday, excited about the next stage of his football life in Silver & Black, but inside beat a broken heart.
Because he felt he had no choice but to take the money and run when Giants GM Jerry Reese finally made him an offer on Tuesday.
It was approximately half of what the Raiders offered.
For the defensive captain of the Giants. A heart-and-soul player. Who wanted to retire a Giant.
“He was devastated,” a Tuck confidante said. “The guy was heartbroken. What they did was a complete, blatant lack of respect.”
Tuck learned of the Giants’ offer after linebacker O’Brien Schofield, who then flunked his physical, received a two-year, $8 million offer. Tuck learned of the offer after the Giants signed Jon Beason to a deal that will pay him $12 million over two years and possibly $19 million over three ($7 million guaranteed).
Schofield has 11.5 sacks over 50 NFL games. Tuck had 11 sacks last season.
Crumbs for Captain Tuck anyway.
No one walks in another man’s shoes, of course. Tuck has a beautiful wife and two young sons. He is one of the good guys, a role model and true professional, for nine years part of the fabric of this city, a fixture at the Garden, a giant in the community with Tuck’s R.U.S.H. for Literacy.
He deserved better.
It would be easy to make the case Tuck deserved to be treated the way the Steelers have treated Troy Polamalu in the twilight of his career, the way the Ravens have treated Terrell Suggs in the twilight of his career.
Tuck’s crime? He’ll turn 31 at the end of the month.
Reese is paid to make these kinds of tough decisions, and the Giants appear to be in the midst of a youth movement of sorts.
Tuck is no babe in the woods, he has seen Giants come and go, and now he learns the hard way what a cruel business this football business can be.
He sacrificed a chance to win a third Super Bowl championship to go to a Black Hole, where Commitment to Excellence has been a distant memory.
He left a division that is very much up for grabs for a chance to chase Peyton Manning and the formidable Broncos and Andy Reid’s Chiefs. Good luck with that.
He left the greatest city in the land for — no disrespect intended — a city that toils in the shadow of San Francisco.
He left a locker room inside which he served, along with Antrel Rolle, as Tom Coughlin’s defensive lieutenant.
He joins a team that just had two of its best players, defensive end Lamarr Houston and offensive tackle Jared Veldheer, flee.
A team quarterbacked not by Eli Manning, a quarterback he forever trusted, a quarterback with three prime years remaining at least, but by Matt McGloin, at least for now.
To his credit, Tuck changed his workout program and remade his body and stayed healthy. He leaves the Giants with 60.5 sacks and 453 tackles.
The money is always greener, but the grass isn’t. He can ask Osi Umenyiora how he enjoyed last season in Atlanta. He can ask Neil O’Donnell, who left the Super Bowl Steelers for a five-year, $25 million deal, how he enjoyed his two seasons as a Jet.
He looked happy enough, smiling beneath a black Raiders cap on his new club’s website, and it sounded like he was happy enough when he said: “Obviously, everyone knows I love the New York Giants, and I appreciate nine years of my career being there, but I just wanted a new fresh start and I think Oakland is definitely a good place to be. Everyone knows the fan base is great out here.”
He talked about the Raiders tradition and said: “I just want to be a part of the group that brings it back.”
He’ll still have his Subway commercials. But he won’t get to retire as a Giant, the way Michael Strahan did. The way Lawrence Taylor did. You can’t put a price tag on that.
He was class from the moment he was drafted out of Notre Dame, a go-to-guy for the media. He will never be forgotten for the way he got after Tom Brady in Super Bowl XLII.
“I feel like I have a lot of great football left in me,” Tuck said.
But the Giants didn’t.
On his Facebook page, beneath a photo of him defeating a blocker in his red, white and blue 91 jersey, he thanked his old fans and his old team for the memories:
“I just want to thank the New York Giants fans. My family and I have appreciated your support on and off the field, and it’s been incredible playing for you the last nine years. Also, I want to thank the Giants organization for being nothing but first class, and for the opportunity to win 2 championships.”
He was true Blue to the end. And when he landed back home Thursday night, part of him was $ilver & Black, and part of him was blue.
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