Getty New York Giants safety Xavier McKinney was college teammates with Eagles QB Jalen Hurts at Alabama.
The New York Giants just can’t stop whining about not making the playoffs. They keep blaming the Philadelphia Eagles for pulling their starters in Week 17 and losing on purpose to get a better draft pick. Never mind that the Giants went 6-10.
The latest Giants player to keep the narrative going is second-year safety Xavier McKinney who told “The All Things Covered” podcast that he is indeed holding a grudge against the Eagles. McKinney didn’t actually watch the alleged “tank job” but he and his teammates were chatting about it in real time when it happened. The Eagles lost 20-14 on Jan. 3 and the Washington Football Team won the NFC East.
“I would be lying to you if I said I didn’t, man. I’m not gonna lie,” McKinney said when asked if he held a grudge (via CBS Sports). “It was a winnable game for them. And actually when I came home, I ain’t even watch the game because I had a feeling something like that was gonna happen — it was gonna be something weird going on. Because they had stuff going on the whole year with the whole quarterback situation.”
The Eagles pulled starting quarterback Jalen Hurts early in the fourth quarter only trailing by three points. Third-stringer Nate Sudfeld came in and put on a clinic on how not to play football: 5-of-12 for 32 yards and an interception (14.6 QB rating).
Added McKinney: “I turn on the game and I start watching, and I’m like, ‘Damn, they just about to give it up.’ They gave it up, man. It was rough, it was rough to see it happen like that. But everything happens for a reason.”
“A lot of other teams that were recruiting me were saying ‘oh, Saban might not be there’ and he’s still there.”
@mckinney15__ thinks Nick Saban will continue coaching as long as he can.
More from the Giants 2nd-year safety 👇
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McKinney Calls Hurts ‘True Competitor, Man’
McKinney and Hurts were college teammates at Alabama in 2017 and 2018. He had a front-row seat in the locker room when Hurts lost the starting job to Tua Tagovailoa and remembers a mature kid who never lost his cool. Yes, Hurts eventually transferred to Oklahoma but spent his junior year on the bench in Tuscaloosa and never complained.
“That dude, he’s the definition of a real, true competitor,” McKinney said, via Audacity. “Just how he played, how he carried himself. He never was too high, he never was too low, he never saw a time where, (in) them games where he got pulled or anything that happened, he didn’t have no type of facial (expression). He was just even-keeled, man, and he’d go in the game and still play like he was playing the whole damn game.”
Through two rounds, eight former Alabama players have been drafted.
Four went in the second round:
— Xavier McKinney to the Giants (No. 36 overall pick)
— Trevon Diggs to the Cowboys (No. 51)
— Jalen Hurts to the Eagles (No. 53)
— Raekwon Davis to the Dolphins (No. 56)
Hurts was the first freshman quarterback to start under Nick Saban and holds the fourth-best winning percentage at the school (92.9%, 26-2). His 7,617 yards of total offense ranks third-best in program history.
Hurts Fulfills Promise to Young Oklahoma Fan
Meanwhile, Hurts continues to earn off-the-field praise as a stand-up guy and leader of men. The Eagles signal-caller kept his “pinky promise” to Kannon Simmons, the five-year-old kid who interviewed him in 2020.
Hurts said he would come back and see him after getting drafted. Well, the former Oklahoma star surprised him by showing up at the annual ChampU BBQ at the school last week. Good looking out from Hurts.