The New York Giants had the doors blown off last night to the tune of 38-13. As a 0.5 Giants household, it was a rough evening, full of a lot of audible “SHIT” and “DAMN IT, ELI.” But, that’s okay – hats off to the Green Bay Packers. They’re undoubtedly the hottest team in the NFL right now, and the Elite Eight should be on notice. This team has real Super Bowl potential.
Nonetheless, yesterday’s Giants-Packers game was the icing on the cake for a weekend of putrid wild card games. If you would’ve told me after watching the boring contest between the Raiders and Texans that it was going to end up being the closest game of the weekend, I probably would’ve sat the rest of the weekend out. It was brutal.
But, one thing I can’t sit out is weighing in on this boat trip. All week, all we heard was how crazy the Giants receivers were for taking a day off and going to Miami to do some casual drugs (rumored) and pose shirtless on Instagram. It was disrespectful to the game and all that mumbo jumbo bullshit.
Give me a break – it was their day off. They didn’t miss a single practice. Their own teammates dismissed the criticism. No one should be shocked by this – I’m a “players” guy. I wrote a piece defending Richard Sherman after his AWESOME promo on Michael Crabtree, and I’ll defend the Giants receiving corps here.
1. First and foremost, partying on a boat has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the fact that Eli Manning was sailing passes halfway to Milwaukee.
I didn’t know a boat caused Eli to throw a pass 6 foot over an open WRs head.
— Vance Meek (@vancemeek) January 9, 2017
Could not have said it better myself. Not to mention, in the second half, the Giants offensive line stunk. Ereck Flowers was beat badly, and Clay Matthews played like a man on fire.
2. Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard dropped passes all season. Beckham, specifically, had several games this season where he just disappeared. He had five games this season with five or less receptions for less than 50 yards. It just so happened that he had such a game under the microscope of the NFL playoffs, and amplified because him and his boy let a picture of their escapades get out.
3. Aaron Rodgers is still Aaron Rodgers. The King of the Hail Mary simply took over that game. I don’t think the United States Army could have stopped Rodgers from scoring yesterday. It was a brilliant performance and guess what – Rodgers’ success has nothing to do with the Giants receivers partying in Miami.
4. The boat party was SIX DAYS BEFORE THE GAME. The guys still showed up to practice on Wednesday, and according to all parties involved, the receivers had a great week of practice.
But, shall I remind you, we are a society that takes football entirely too seriously. We expect our players to be football robots, and for some reason, we feel like they owe us something. Like, they owe it to the fans to concentrate on the game and not be partying in Miami? I don’t get it – and another issue, these guys aren’t role models.
Okay, maybe I won’t go down that road. Maybe that’s a discussion for a different day – but, friendly reminder: football players, or athletes of any kind, should NOT be role models for our children. Try dads, uncles, grandfathers, whatever instead.
My point is – don’t you ever have a tough day at the office and just want to unwind by drinking a few beers, getting a little too loud, and eating an entire pizza by yourself? No? Is that just me? Let these guys have their normalcy. If anything, isn’t there an old football mantra that you want the playoffs to feel like just another normal game? Was this just another normal week for the Giants? I’m just wondering.
And, get off your damn high horse, Troy Aikman. Talking about how you’d never go on a boat party before a playoff game. What do you think your teammates were doing on their off days? You think Michael Irvin was watching film in his home office? Hell no!
So yeah, you know what – if I just got my ass beat and afterwards had to answer questions about the boat party from a week ago, I’d probably be banging my head against the wall and punching holes in walls, too.
To everyone blaming this Giants loss on the receivers enjoying a day off, I say, “sit down, old man.”
Stoney Keeley is the editor of the SoBros Network, Tennessee Titans Featured Analyst for Pro Football Spot, Contributor to FanSided’s Bama Hammer, and covers the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley, @PFSpot, @WrestlingNewsCo, @Bama_Hammer
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