Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin, the target of much pre-draft trade talk surrounding the Giants, just fired his agent, Drew Rosenhaus. Seems the young man got a lot of bad advice from the superagent, including voicing a trade demand and not showing his face in the offseason conditioning program.

The question now is, will this precipitate a trade, or will the Cards be more likely to sign Boldin to the new contract he’s long desired. My guess is that Arizona will now sign Boldin. And that should put an end to any speculation about him coming to New York.

Here’s the whole story, thanks to my friends at the Arizona Republic.

EP

If anyone says the Giants’ newest acquisition has as much a chance of cracking the offensive line roster as King Tut, they may not be far from the truth.

They just signed Tutenkhamen Reyes, known to friends and foe as Tuten Reyes. Don’t know how far they had to dig to find the Queens product—see what I did there? Dig. King Tut’s tomb? Funny, right?—but he should add more depth for training camp.

He does have experience. He’s a 10-year vet who has started 37 of 53 regular season games with New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Buffalo, and Jacksonville. Good bulk at 6-3, 305, and he plays both tackle and guard.

To make room on the roster, the Giants waived practice squad tight end Martrez Milner.

EP

The Giants preseason schedule has been released, and it starts off with a nationally-televised Monday Night home game against the Carolina Panthers on Aug. 17. The game is scheduled for 8 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN.

The team will then travel to Chicago for an 8 p.m. game with the Bears on Saturday, Aug. 22, and then come home to host the Jets in their traditional intra-stadium rivalry game on Saturday, Aug. 29, at 8 p.m.

The preseason wraps up on Thursday, Sept. 3, with a 7:30 p.m. game against the New England Patriots in Foxboro.

EP

I know Giants fans wish nothing but evil on Philadelphia football folks, but this is goes beyond the field. Way beyond it. Just read that Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson will be taking a leave of absence as he begins a new round of chemotherapy in his battle with melanoma.

I’ve dealt with the 68-year-old Johnson a little bit, usually during playoff time, and I’ve always found him an informative, entertaining, gentlemanly fellow. And that doesn’t even touch on his reputation as one of the finest defensive minds in the NFL. I don’t know how long he’ll be gone—I’m hoping this’ll be a short absence—but I do know the Eagles won’t be half as interesting without him.

I wish him well in his fight.

I hope you will, too.

EP

The Giants—well, at least the players, coaches, and trainers—moved into their new training facility today, the first time since 1977 that they’re in new digs. I told you all about the new place a month or so ago when the media got its first looks. But now the offices that were just half-painted sheet rock are done, the practice fields that were just smoothed-over dirt have grown, and the empty rooms have been filled with equipment.

By the sounds of it, if the Giants don’t win the Super Bowl this year, they can’t blame their surroundings.

“I am sitting in my office and looking out over the most magnificent practice fields I think I have ever seen,” coach Tom Coughlin said. “We have had a great first day in this facility. I came in by the weight room this morning, and it was my first opportunity to see it set up. (Strength and conditioning coaches) Jerry Palmieri and Markus Paul stayed until 10:30 on Friday night to get it set up.

“The rookies are back in today, along with the veterans, and the players are genuinely excited about their new surroundings and facilities, and we’re excited about the new facility. We’re feeling our way through right now, but we’ll be up and running at full-speed before long.”

The majority of the front office will continue to filter in over the next two to three weeks, no doubt finding equally accommodating furnishings.

For those of you into numbers and square foot thingys, here’s how the new digs shape up.

-           Is 103,000 square feet.

-           The field house is approximately 93,000 square feet.

-           The complex sits on 20 acres of land.

-           4 full practice fields.

-           3 full grass practice fields.

-           1 full synthetic field in field house.

-           1 80-yard synthetic field north of field house.

-           Weight room approximately 7,500 square feet.

-           Locker room approximately 4,535 square feet.

-           69 lockers shaped into a large football.

-           9 player meeting rooms.

-           The auditorium is approximately 2,500 square feet.

-           The auditorium is equipped with 132 seats.

-           The dining room is approximately 5,900 square feet.

I’m most interested in the dining room. The way some of those guys eat, the extra space will provide extra protection for any stray limbs.

EP

Tony Kornheiser’s out of the ESPN Monday Night Football crew because—he says—he can’t stand flying.

Seems a little off to me, seeing that there are other alternate modes of transportation if one really wants to make a gig work. At any rate, are we happy about this? Sad? Looking forward to Jon Gruden taking over. Chucky ought to be a gas.

Tell me what you think.

EP

If agent Drew Rosenhaus isn’t just pulling a bunch of cyberlegs on his twitter account, his client Plaxico Burress is getting serious interest from at least two NFL teams.

They do realize he’s probably going to jail, right?

And even if he doesn’t, he’s probably going out for a long league-levied suspension.

What do you think that says about the state of NFL coaches and owners who would even talk to him in light of all that?

EP

You know, I forgot all about it until my boy Ralph at the Daily News reminded me. Yesterday was the final day of activity in the Giants Stadium press room. Starting with the next locker room availability, we’ll all move into our new, somewhat cozier, digs at the new Giants office building, right next to their cavernous indoor practice facility.

I’m going to miss the old joint. Maybe because I’m a creature of habit, but I never really complained about the place we not-so-affectionately called “The Dungeon.” True, it had no windows, as it lay in the bowels beneath the Giants Stadium seating bowl. It could get real cold if they didn’t turn the heat on, or real hot if they forgot to crank up the air conditioning. But mostly, it was home to me and my colleagues.

It’s where Bill Parcells would come down for impromptu chats after Wednesday practices, well past the time the TV and radio guys had left. The off-the-record stuff was both entertaining and insightful. I learned a lot of football back then.

It’s where Jim Fassel issued his famous proclamation, “This team is going to the playoffs!” And it’s where Michael Strahan famously blasted Fassel as the coach was burying his mom in California. It’s where Dan Reeves called the George Young-led front office as “The most argumentative organization I’ve ever been involved with,” after Tyrone Wheatley became their first-round draft pick against Reeves’ wishes.

So many other memories. Ray Handley’s two-year mental breakdown, countless debates among me and my colleagues. Thousands of stories written and, for me, the place where I’ve had the privilege of chronicling each of the last 20 seasons of Giants history for you.

I’ll miss the old joint. The one thing I can look forward to in the new place: At least it’ll have an internet connection.

Farewell, press room. Sorry I couldn’t be there to say goodbye.

EP

And said, “Eli Manning is promoting the Guiding Eyes for the Blind Golf Classic, June 14-15 at Whippoorwill Golf Club in Armonk and Mount Kisco Country Club in Mount Kisco. Go shoot some pictures and have a nice chat with him.”

Now, I’ve known my editor for, like, ages, and she must have known that giving me a camera to take a newspaper photo is like asking a drunkard to perform brain surgery. YOU JUST DON’T DO IT! My own children won’t let me within 10 feet of photographic equipment.

But I’m a good soldier, so I clicked away. You see some of the results here. That’s Abby Manning, by the way, with eight-week old Major, who has gone into guide dog training.

And yes, I did have a very pleasant conversation with Mr. Manning as he mingled among veteran and rookie guide dogs and supporters of a fantastic organization.

Basically, we talked about the rookie quarterback, Rhett Bomar, and his two rookie receivers, Hakeem Nicks and Ramses Barden.

About the receivers, Eli said he’s looking forward to throwing to them at the June full-team minicamp. But he’s already gotten a positive scouting report on them from the offensive coaching staff.

“I’ve talked to the coaches and they’re impressed with both receivers,” Manning said. “They caught the ball extremely well and showed quickness at the line.”

Kind of brought a smile to the young man’s face.

“You never want bad reports.”

Still, he’s under no illusions that their emergence into the NFL will be easy.

“It’s going to be a learning curve for them.”

On to Bomar.

Last year, if you remember, the Giants went into the season with two quarterbacks on the roster—Manning and David Carr—while Andre Woodson sat on the practice squad. That made things awfully precarious as far as injury insurance, and even having that extra set of eyes on the sidelines for figuring out defenses.

With Bomar there, Woodson’s position is obviously in jeopardy. The Giants undoubtedly would want to go into the season with three quarterbacks this time around. And Manning expects a spirited competition between the mobile Woodson and the strong-armed Bomar.

He’s going to work with both of them, though he has yet to speak with Sam Houston State’s Bomar.

“I enjoy it,” Manning said. “I like having young kids in the meeting room. I’ll have them break down a cut-up with me. Sometimes, they’ll bring back a reminder to me of something. It’s a good experience.”

But whether the team goes in with two or three quarterbacks makes little difference to the Giants’ No. 1 guy.

“There’s no pressure,” he said. “Woodson was there the whole time, in meetings and everything. You should be able to get through the season with two quarterbacks.”

So that’s it. Like my artwork? By the way, that second picture is with veteran guide dogs Yvonne and Gandolf. Can anyone tell me what kind of dogs they are, besides very cute and cuddly?

EP

The bosses found other things for me to tend to other than the rookie minicamp. Oh, well. But here’s some news. The Giants signed six of their free agent tryouts:

Two rookies, center Alex Derenthal (Temple) and defensive end Tommie Hill (Colorado State), and four veterans—wide receiver Shaun Bodiford (Portland State; most recently with Green Bay), running back Allen Patrick (Oklahoma; a seventh round draft choice by Baltimore last year), linebacker Kelvin Smith (Syracuse; a seventh round selection by Miami in 2007) and tight end George Wrighster (Oregon; a 2003 fourth round draft choice by Jacksonville, where he played in 67 games over the past six seasons).

You might remember that Smith is a local guy via North Rockland High, the cousin of Titans Pro Bowl linebacker Keith Bulluck. We did a piece on him leading into the 2007 draft on how he trained for the combine.

EP