Are Braylon Edwards and Osi Umenyiora in a competition to see which one could destroy his own value more? Because if so, there’s some major sister-kissing going on, although Umenyiora is threatening to take the lead.

Umenyiora, who is pissed at the Giants for not giving him a new contract or trading him to a team that will, is now claiming that he is sitting out of practice due to a sore knee. But the story gets better because according to the Wall Street Journal, the injury may require surgery.

Something tells me that if Umenyiora was traded to Seattle on Monday, his knee would be strong enough for him to do flips in training camp. But because he’s stuck in New York and those good-for-nothing Giants have the audacity to ask him to play out the remainder of his contract, all of a sudden his knee is bothering him.

Either way, what he or his representatives don’t realize is that they’re sinking his trade value. He thinks he’s hurting the Giants with this stunt, but he’s actually hurting his overall goal, which is to be traded so that he can land a long-term contract.

The Giants are cap-strapped right now. Whether they promised to pay Umenyiora like a top-5 defensive end or not is rather moot because they can’t pay him due to lack of cap room. Period, end of story.

If Umenyiora wants to hold out in order to force the Giants’ hand in hopes that they’ll reduce their asking price of a first round pick, so be it. But the bottom line is that a) the Giants aren’t going to pay him more money because they can‘t, b) no team wanted him at the price of a first round pick and c) no team is going to want him period if he has to have surgery. Thus, if the goal for Umenyiora is to receive a long-term contract, faking a knee injury isn’t helping. In fact, it’s rather detrimental to his overall cause.

If the Giants promised Umenyiora more money and they’re now reneging, then shame on them. But clearly no agreement was in writing and once again, the Giants can’t pay him because of they’re salary cap situation. So the smartest thing for Umenyiora to do is to avoid taking a shotgun to his own value. He has to remain attractive to other teams and the only way to do that is to stay healthy. Plus, the fact that the Giants don’t have any cap room is actually a bonus for Umenyiora because they may ultimately feel they need to trade him to free up money. (It’s not like they need the defensive end depth.)

Umenyiora would benefit from going back to the drawing board and coming up with a new game plan. Because as the situation currently stands, he’s working backwards from his main goal.

It wouldn’t be a NFL offseason if defensive end Osi Umenyiora weren’t upset at the New York Giants.

In a sworn affidavit, Umenyiora plans to tell a federal court in Minnesota that the Giants reneged on a promise to renegotiate his contract. The affidavit will be used in the players’ antitrust suit against the owners.

In this sworn affidavit, Umenyiora says (via ESPN.com): “(GM Jerry) Reese told me that two years from the start of the 2008 league year, if I was currently playing at a high level, we’d either renegotiate my current contract so that it would be equal to that of the top five defensive ends playing or I would be traded to a team that would do that.”

Umenyiora goes on:

“After about an hour of discussing my current contract, as well as the contracts of other defensive ends currently playing in the National Football League, Mr. Reese told me that two years from the start of the 2008 league year, if I was currently playing at a high level, we’d either renegotiate my current contract so that it would be equal to that of the top five defensive ends playing or I would be traded to a team that would do that.

“Before leaving the meeting, I asked Mr. Reese twice if he was absolutely sure that would be the case. He then told me that he was an honest and church-going man and that he would not lie, which I believed to be the case. Under the penalty of perjury these statements are true and accurate.”

It wouldn’t be right for me to comment on whether or not Reese and the Giants screwed Umenyiora out of a new contract because after all – how would I know? I wasn’t in the room, hiding behind the big fake plant in the corner taping the entire conversation. If Umenyiora says Reese is an honest church-going man who lied to him about his contract situation then so be it. Let the courts figure the mess out.

But what I do know is that this isn’t good for the Giants. The last thing they want is for one of their players to question the credibility of the general manager. Umenyiora is essentially calling the general manager a liar, which doesn’t exactly bode well for a team that will try to recruit free agents when the lockout lifts. And considering Umenyiora has an inflated sense of his worth, it’s going to be hard for the Giants to find trade suitors this offseason if they wind up deciding to trade him.

Furthermore, it’s not like Umenyiora has much leverage here. He’s 29, he still has two years remaining on his contract and he just had hip surgery. With 2010 first round pick Jason Pierre-Paul ready to assume a starting position in the next year or two, the Giants aren’t going to oblige and give Umenyiora a new contract – especially not now given all this sworn affidavit hoopla. Umenyiora’s pass rushing ability speaks for itself but he’s a one-dimensional player and one-dimensional players don’t command top-5 money at their positions.

It’s clear that Umenyiora wants a new contract or wants out and quite frankly, he may want both. With that in mind, it may be time for the Giants and Umenyiora to officially part ways.