Giants OT Evan Neal Issues Apology for Harsh Words Directed at Fan Base
New York Giants right tackle Evan Neal showed a little off-field fire on Thursday during the post-practice media session.
Unfortunately, that fire was directed at the fan base, which has been critical of Neal’s performance since his arrival to the Giants as the seventh overall pick in the NFL draft last year.
Speaking with NJ Advanced Media, Neal verbally teed off on the fans who have made their displeasure with the second-year right tackle’s struggles known.
“Why would a lion concern himself with the opinion of a sheep?” Neal told Daryl Slater of NJ Advance Media. “I genuinely don’t care. Why should I? I’m in the National Football League. The person that’s commenting on my performance, what does he do? Flip hot dogs and hamburgers somewhere?”
Neal, like the rest of his teammates and coaches, is frustrated with how the Giants season has unfolded after the team last year delivered a 9-7-1 showing that included their first postseason berth since 2016.
The former Alabama product has seen his play come under fire by critics who have begun comparing him to another first-round pick who struggled as a Giant, tackle Ereck Flowers, the team's first-round pick in 2015 who was shipped out of town during the 2018 season.
Neal even went so far as to challenge the fans booing the Giants on Monday night during their loss to Seattle to boo louder, telling NJ Advance Media, “A lot of fans are bandwagoners. I mean, I get it: They want to see us perform well,” Neal told NJ Advance Media. ”And I respect all of that. But no one wants us to perform well more than we do.
“And how can you say you’re really a fan when we’re out there battling our asses off — and the game wasn’t going well — but the best you can do is boo your home team? So how much of a fan are you, really?”
Neal took to his social media account on X (formerly Twitter) to deliver an apology for his words.
"I am wrong for lashing out at the fans who are just as passionate and frustrated as I am," he wrote. "I let my frustrations in my play + 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."
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