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Packers OC Philbin Out Indefinitely

Bob Whalon Written by Bob Whalon, Wednesday January 11 2012
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All sports teams looks for every advantage they can get against an opponent, but this is one time the New York Giants wish they didn't have such an unfair advantage.

The Giants travel to Green Bay to take on the Packers this weekend in the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs.  When they play the game, the Packers will be without their offensive coordinator, Joe Philbin.  That's because Philbin just lost his son, Michael.

Michael Philbin disappeared early Sunday morning after a night out with friends in the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh campus area.  His body was recovered from an icy Wisconsin river on Monday.

Philbin wasn't with the team on Wednesday and will be away indefinitely as he and his family deal with this real world tragedy.  Packers head coach Mike McCarthy and the rest of the offensive staff are dividing up Philbin's duties, and will continue to do so for as long as necessary.

"Joe Philbin is where he's supposed to be," McCarthy said.  "Frankly Joe and I haven't even talked about his responsibility and will not.  He's with his family and he'll return when he feels he's ready to return."

Justin Tuck tweeted on Tuesday that Philbin and Packer Nation was in his prayers.  And Giants coach Tom Coughlin also passed along his condolences.

"Our heart goes out to the Philbin family," Coughlin said.  "When we first heard this the other night, the whole coaching staff, the room went absolutely silent.  Many guys know Joe Philbin.  You have tremendous empathy, but you can't have anywhere near the feeling that his family's going through.  It's tragic.  The sympathy of the Giants organization goes out to the Philbin family."

Yes, it is a tragedy and yes, the Giants passed along their condolences, but there is still a game to be played.  The Giants won't take it easy on the Packers because they feel sorry for their loss.  It is their job to do everything they can do to win the game.

On the other side of the field, there is no way to know how this will affect the Packers until they actually play the game.  McCarthy talked to his team about separating their personal challenges from their professional challenges, but the players are all human.

The players know that winning the game in Philbin's honor won't really do anything to take away the family's loss, but it's all they can do at this point.

"Being in a team meeting, when everything was relayed to us, you could just sense that, 'OK, we've got to do this for Joe,'" Packers receiver Greg Jennings said.


Tags:  Green Bay Packers, Greg Jennings, Joe Philbin, Justin Tuck, Michael Philbin, New York Giants, NFL, NFL Playoffs, Tom Coughlin, Tom McCarthy, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh



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