Giants OLB Abdul Carter Takes Ownership for Week 11 Indiscretion

Abdul Carter has learned from his Week 11 indiscretion and is moving forward.

New York Giants linebacker Abdul Carter | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

New York Giants rookie outside linebacker Abdul Carter, speaking to the media on Wednesday for the first time since the reason for his benching during the opening series was made public, said he’s taken ownership of his role in having missed a practice, and both he and the team are moving on.

“We’re focused on this week, so that's what I'm trying to focus on,” Carter said after Wednesday’s practice. “They expect me to do my job. It's as simple as that.”

Carter spoke out via his social media account after a report by The Athletic claimed that the rookie had slept through a Friday morning walkthrough practice. 

Carter, in a report published by ESPN, claimed he was receiving therapy at the time and hadn’t been aware of the change in practice time, calling the whole incident “an innocent mistake.”

Still, that innocent mistake drew some ire from interim head coach Mike Kafka, who sat the rookie for the first series in last week’s loss to the Green Bay Packers. And Kafka, for his part, has also put the incident behind him.

“Abdul has my full support,” Kafka said before Wednesday’s practice. “We're all here for him, our coaches, the players, the leadership group. 

“It's not really necessarily about Abdul, but about everybody in our unit, in our team. They’ve got our support, and we're here, we’ve got their backs.” 

Carter, who was a standout at Penn State, hasn’t quite had the season he was hoping to have, but he said he’s been learning as he goes along about the differences between playing a game for fun and for a paycheck. 

“It's my first year. Obviously, there's going to be new things I have to learn, come through, and approach and learn from. So that's what I'm doing,” he said.

Kafka applauded the rookie for making the effort to get better as a player. 

“He practices his tail off, he plays his tail off, he's continuing to learn and grow as a young player, and I'm proud of him for how he's handled these things,” he said. 

“It hasn't been an easy couple of days, but I'm proud of him, and I think he's earned a lot of respect in the locker room and will continue to grow and be a great teammate and learn from the things that he's done.”

What happens next with the NY Giants? Find out! Follow and like us on Facebook. Visit our YouTube channel for the latest videos. Want to send a question in for our mailbag? You can do so here.