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New York Giants offensive tackle Evan Neal had choice words for the home fans that booed the team in Monday’s 24-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
He told NJ Advance Media’s Darryl Slater (via Jared Schwartz of the New York Post) he gestured for the fans to boo louder “because that just further shows that people are fair-weather.”
“A lot of fans are bandwagoners,” Neal said. “I mean, I get it: They want to see us perform well. 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 also addressed his critics specifically.
“The person that’s commenting on my performance, what does he do? Flip hot dogs and hamburgers somewhere?” he said to Slater.
He subsequently apologized in a statement posted to social media, saying he was “wrong for lashing out at the fans who are just as passionate and frustrated as I am”:
Evan Neal @ENeal73
pic.twitter.com/rDNIbeadp5
Neal’s frustration, both in the moment and days later, is understandable to a degree. It’s not as though the Giants’ performance was through a lack of effort.
But making such a direct attack against the fanbase is rarely a winning strategy, even less so in a sports market that can be as unforgiving as New York.
Ryan Dunleavy @rydunleavy
Feels like Evan Neal just punched his ticket out of town for a sixth-rounder. #Giants fans wont forget this https://t.co/WvzyR4BmXu
Using that line of criticism against Giants fans is also a bit rich because one thing you can say in their defense is that most of them aren’t bandwagoners. There isn’t much of a bandwagon on which to jump when you’re talking about a franchise that has two playoff trips and one postseason victory since 2011.
Neal hasn’t exactly built the kind of equity that would allow him to be so dismissive, either.
Entering the season, Pro Football Focus’ Gordon McGuinness listed the 2022 No. 7 overall pick among the 10 second-year players that needed to deliver on the field. So far, he’s standing out on an offensive line that has surrendered the second-most sacks (23), with 11 coming Monday night. Neal’s most notable contribution in that defeat was blocking a teammate.
You’d think this would be the the 23-year-old would be going out of his way to get the fans on his side, not the other way around.
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