MINNEAPOLIS – When he gave away the play-calling duties late in the 1999 season, Jim Fassel freed himself up to concentrate on the entire Giants football operation. He was not required to attend the offensive and defensive meetings, as his coordinators handled those responsibilities.

Now that he’s back in charge of calling the plays, Fassel’s workload has increased. He must be involved in the offensive meeting, as he’s thrust upon himself a greater role in developing the gameplan from week to week. When Sean Payton was in charge of the offense, Fassel was able to poke his head in on defensive meetings and during games often could be seen chatting and exhorting defensive players. That won’t happen anymore.

“I get [to Giants Stadium] early in the morning and I go from one thing to the next and the next, right on through the night,” Fassel said. “It’s one of those things where you eat your lunch on the run; it takes me 10 minutes to eat lunch, I eat dinner while I work and I just don’t stop.”

Coaches are respected figures but when the head coach steps into the meeting, players sit up just a bit straighter. Fassel added to his schedule last week leading up to the 24-17 victory over the Jaguars, and kept up the frenetic pace prior to today’s game against the Vikings.

“He was in our meeting pretty much full time,” tight end Dan Campbell said of last week’s change in routine. “He was looking at everything, his ideas, he was coaching everybody . . . The biggest thing about it was his confidence. The night before the game, heck, the guy hadn’t called a game in three years, he was just confident, saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to do this, we’re going to line up, you’re going to beat the guy over you.’ That said a lot about it. He felt we were going to succeed.”