By ERNIE PALLADINO
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - He dove at Donovan McNabb's throw to Torrance Small, knowing all the time he had no shot at intercepting it right there. So Jason Sehorn tapped it into the air, rolled, and then grabbed it on the ball's downward flight.

Rising, he found daylight and, 32 yards later, the end zone.

The play, sparkling with all the elan of a Chinese acrobat, went down as one of the most memorable interceptions in New York Giants history, and deservedly so. It gave the Giants a 17-0, second-quarter lead over the hated Philadelphia Eagles in the 2000 playoff game, an eventual 20-10 win that would propel the Giants into the NFC Championship game, and then into the Super Bowl.

If Sehorn ever makes another play so athletically brilliant, it will have to go into some other team's memory book. Sehorn became an ex-Giant at 4:01 p.m. Friday, when he decided that being cut was better than accepting a $3.3 million salary reduction to $1 million, with no assurances of job security.

Sehorn issued no public statement. But his agent, Kyle Rote, Jr., had told general manager Ernie Accorsi before the deadline that Sehorn had decided against signing the lesser deal.

With a $1 million roster bonus due March 10, which the Giants had no intention of paying, the team released the nine-year veteran.

"At many times throughout his career, Jason was an outstanding player for us," Giants coach Jim Fassel said. "The interception he made against Philly in the 2000 playoffs will always stand as one of the greatest individual athletic plays I have ever seen."

Cutting Sehorn cost the Giants $700,000 against the salary cap and reduced their cushion less than $1 million under the $74.8 million cap, still enough money to sign a mid-level free agent defensive lineman or two. But it would certainly put a crimp in any effort to sign Eagles defensive end Hugh Douglas, who spent Friday at the Meadowlands.

Accorsi called some of Sehorn's more memorable moments "magical," and wasn't far from the truth. Before accumulated injuries over the last five years sapped him of speed, the 6-foot-2, 213-pound Sehorn ranked among the best corners in the NFL. Fast, tall, and athletic, Sehorn appeared ready to break into the elite following a strong 1997 season in which he recorded a career-high six interceptions, one of which he returned for a touchdown.

A blown right knee and a broken left leg wrecked his next two seasons, but he came back strong in 2000 to break up a team-high 17 passes. He returned an on-side kick against Jacksonville 38 yards for a touchdown in the final, must-win game for home field playoff advantage, and then sparkled against Philadelphia and Minnesota in the playoffs.

Injuries, this time involving knee swelling, cut into his skills again in 2001. Last year, he fell to nickel back, behind young right corner Will Peterson on the depth chart.

Despite the decline, there were always flashes of what he had been. He returned an interception for a touchdown against St. Louis. And there was a pick in the wild card game in San Francisco that set up the final touchdown of the first half, which gave the Giants a 28-14 halftime lead.

There would, of course, be a huge collapse, with Sehorn getting burned repeatedly by Terrell Owens as the 49ers roared back with 25 unanswered points.

In the end, the physical decline and the rising $4.3 million salary proved too expensive to keep him around. Even if he did take the cut, he might not have made it to training camp.

So Sehorn decided it was best to move on, a view many in the Giants organization also held.

"We wish him well," Accorsi said.

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