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New York Giants right tackle Evan Neal did apologize for his frustrating comments directed at the booing fans in Week 4 — but the quotes still didn’t sit right with many long-time supporters of the franchise.
“The advice I would give to him and any other teammate [is] never pick a battle with the fans,” Giants star running back Saquon Barkley told reporters after being asked about the situation on October 5. “You’re never gonna win that one. They’ve been here before us and they’re gonna be here after us, and that’s the truth.”
Barkley did prelude that answer by crediting Neal with “owning up to his mistakes” and “taking accountability” in his apology.
That apology read: “I am wrong for lashing out at the fans who are just as passionate and frustrated as I am. I let my frustrations in my play [plus] desire to win get the best of me. I had no right to make light of anyone’s job and I deeply regret the things I said. We are working day in and day out to grow as a team and this was an unnecessary distraction. I apologize.”
Giants’ Saquon Barkley Empathizes With Evan Neal After Initial ‘Advice’
Although Barkley was somewhat blunt towards Neal at first, he did empathize with him later — he just could not get behind certain parts of what his teammate expressed.
“Do I think what he said was wrong? I think he could have used his words differently, but in some cases he’s right,” Barkley added, clarifying: “Knowing that you’re getting booed and… basically, how I took it outside of like the ‘hamburgers’ [quote] and the stuff like that was [that] he definitely could have chose his words differently there but at the end of the day, we’re all we got.”
“We gotta do better on the football field,” he went on, “we gotta perform better because at the end of the day, it’s an entertainment business and we gotta put a product out there for the fans to be happy about, but when they’re booing and when everyone in the media is saying this about you, it’s like — we’re all we got, that’s the reality of it.”
When asked if that’s now the Giants’ rallying cry, Barkley noted that it’s “always that,” referencing Kayvon Thibodeaux’s remarks about social media from earlier in the season.
“We see all that, we’re aware of it. Fans are gonna — rightfully so — they’re gonna boo, they’re gonna have their opinions. You guys are doing your job, you guys are going to say negative things or positives things about us and we just can’t get too caught up into that,” Barkley concluded. “So, that would really just be my advice — keep the main thing the main thing. Let’s focus on what we got in here because at the end of the day, we’re going to be the only ones — like I said earlier — to get us out this funk and get us out this diversity, and that’s lean on each other, trust in each other, have each other’s backs. That’s what we’re going to continue to do.”
Giants’ Saquon Barkley Was ‘Running’ at Practice on Friday
On October 6, ESPN NYG beat reporter Jordan Raanan relayed the following from head coach Brian Daboll’s press conference on Friday ahead of Week 5.
“The Giants are going to look at RB Saquon Barkley (ankle) at practice today,” he wrote on X. “They’ll make a decision later on where he stands, per Brian Daboll. They could let this go up until the day of the game vs. [Miami] Dolphins.”
The Athletic’s Charlotte Carroll also sent out a video of Barkley on Friday.
It looks like there’s a slight chance that Barkley is ready to return on Sunday, but we should know more later today after the Giants’ final injury report.
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