Greg Newsome isn’t pretending Sunday night is just another opener.
When the Giants corner steps onto the field at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 13, he’ll be lined up against a Cowboys passing game that he described Wednesday as “dynamic” - and, yes, against George Pickens again. The matchup brings back a chippy history from Newsome’s Browns days, even if he downplayed the idea that he has personal unfinished business with the receiver.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Newsome told the Daily News Wednesday. “I would just say every receiver I go against there’s technically unfinished business.
My job is to shut them out no matter what. Obviously I’ve had a lot of battles with him, so it’s gonna be a little more special.
But my job is to shut them out.”
The two crossed paths in a memorable Browns-Steelers game on Nov. 21, 2024, a snowy Thursday night in Cleveland. Pickens caught four passes for 48 yards that night, and the game ended with the kind of chaos that tends to linger.
After Pittsburgh’s final Hail Mary fell incomplete, Pickens dragged Newsome by the helmet out of the back of the end zone. Newsome shoved back, the confrontation escalated, and the fight spilled toward the front row as the clock expired.
Security had to get involved.
Afterward, Newsome didn’t soften his stance. He called Pickens a “fake tough guy” and said his behavior was “unnecessary.”
Pickens had brushed off the Browns corner before that rematch ever arrived, saying, “I don’t even know who that is,” when asked about facing Newsome again in December 2024. Newsome fired back by saying, “I’m all about the team,” and added, “Obviously he’s a guy that cares more so about himself, and you can see that in the penalties he causes.”
That second meeting never happened. Pickens missed the game with a hamstring injury.
Then the NFL shuffled the pieces again: Pickens ended up with the Cowboys last season, while Newsome split time between the Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars. Their paths stayed apart until now.
Newsome doesn’t sound like a player looking to relive the feud, but he also isn’t backing away from it. Sitting on a folding chair after Giants practice in the rain, he praised Pickens and Dallas’ receivers, including CeeDee Lamb, while making clear he trusts his side of the matchup.
“He’s great at the catch point,” Newsome said of Pickens. “That’s something he’s been great at since he got in the league is just being able to make the tough catches. You’ve got number 88, CeeDee [Lamb], he can line up anywhere, do a lot of great things.
“Definitely great players,” Newsome added, “but I like our chances.”
That’s the balance Newsome brings: respect for the talent across from him, and a little edge he’s not afraid to use if it tilts the game his way.
“The mental part is one of the biggest parts of the game,” Newsome said. “I just try to do my best.
That’s just the way I play, the tenacity I bring out there. And if there’s a guy you can affect the way they play on the field by doing some trash-talking and doing a little stuff like that, we can use it for our advantage.
So that’s something I definitely take pride in.”
So no, Newsome isn’t calling it revenge. But he knows the names, he knows the matchup, and he knows exactly what he’s walking into.
Just enough words to make the point.
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