Giants' Umenyiora calls out Pats' Light

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Another day, another opposing player slinging arrows at the New England Patriots. Wednesday, HBO released quotes from New York Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora, who appeared on this week's Inside the NFL, which debuted last night. Earlier this week, San Diego center Nick Hardwick accused Patriots' defensive lineman Richard Seymour of dirty play, including head-butting one of the Chargers' coaches during the pre-game introductions. Seymour did appear to exchange heated words with one of the San Diego assistants after he and tackle Marcus McNeill exchanged "pleasantries." During his segment with Bob Costas, Umenyiora alludes to dirty tactics by New England Pro Bowler Matt Light during the teams' last meeting, on Dec. 29, though he specifies nothing more than hitting after the whistle. "It was a good matchup the last time. I mean, I think I got him a couple of times; he also got me a couple of times," Umenyiora said. "It was a war out there, and to be honest with you, I'm not quite sure that he thought he was going to see me again because of some of the things he did and said during that game. But, you know, unfortunately he does have to see me again." Umenyiora, who had 52 tackles (41 solo) and 13 sacks this season, had just three assisted tackles against New England last month. Costas asked Umenyiora what Light was doing down in the trenches. "He was doing a couple of things that, you know, he shouldn't have been," Umenyiora replied. "Like what?" Costas said. "Hitting after the delay and trying to -- I don't know if he was trying to intimidate me, I don't know what he was trying to do -- but he did a couple of things that he shouldn't have done, and, you know, now we are really going to go at it this time." A 2003 second-round draft pick, Umenyiora is apparently the Giants' self-appointed spokesman. Before the regular-season finale, he proclaimed that the undefeated Patriots weren't "Jesus Christ and his 12 disciples." And he was quoted in The New York Post this week as saying of New England, "We know we can beat that football team." Not as incendiary as Pittsburgh Steelers safety Anthony Smith's guarantee of a victory, but there are some things that should be said without recorders and notebooks around. "We honestly feel we should have won that football game we played (last month)," Umenyiora said. "The Patriots are an exceptional football team, no question. We had them on the ropes. We're gonna go into this game thinking we can beat them."(Contact Shalise Manza Young at smanza@projo.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)