Lip service
Jenkins can’t represent Giants anymore after Thursday’s non-apology
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Janoris Jenkins’ insensitive nonapology on Thursday for his recent language on Twitter has to be the last straw for the Giants.
Suspend him indefinitely. Cut him. Get him away from your team.
Pat Shurmur said he told Jenkins that calling a fan a “retard” was “very inappropriate and offensive.” And it seems Shurmur forced Jenkins to apologize publicly later Thursday, too.
Unsurprisingly, however, Shurmur’s message did not get through to Jenkins, whose alarming comments revealed that his apology had not been genuine.
“Yeah, I regret it, but at the end of the day it’s my slang, so if you take it how you’re gonna take it then that’s on you,” said Jenkins, who used “the culture I grew up in” to rationalize his second use of the R-word in a little over a year. “I don’t mean to offend nobody. My daddy always told me speak freely and own up to what you say. So I always speak freely as a man, and I speak how I want to speak.”
Jenkins, asked if he would use the word again, actually had the nerve to say: “Next question.”
He also provided an absurd explanation for why it had taken him six hours on Wednesday to tweet: “My apology for the word I used earlier, really didn’t mean no ‘HARM’. #RabbitLoveEverybody.”
“Because I really didn’t see nothing so bad with it . ‘til people like ya’ll just start picking it up making stories,” he said. “So I just decided to apologize.”
Jenkins explained: “Where I’m from we use all kinda words for slang. If it offends anybody I’m sorry. It’s a culture I grew up in. Where I’m from, we use all kinds of words for all kinds of slang. If you don’t know, it’s a hood thing. Whatever. Not to call nobody no name or pick at nobody, it’s just something we use back in the hood at home.”
Remember: the Giants told you Janoris Jenkins was a mentor, another coach on the field, the kind of person they wanted grooming their young secondary this season.
But his long history of off-field issues, multiple examples of lackluster effort in games, and now Thursday’s non-apology add up to the opposite of what this team sold Jenkins to be.
After Thursday’s interview, in fact, Jenkins reinforced his unapologetic tone for his younger teammates in the locker room. As he walked out, Jenkins smacked young corner Grant Haley on the thigh and reminded him: “Speak freely as a man.”
Haley and a couple other young corners smiled but shook their heads.
The Giants already can cut him after the season and save $11.25 million while eating only a $3.5 million cap hit. But why tolerate this for one more day, let alone three more weeks?
Dave Gettleman might not be the GM here much longer, but if he cares about that improved culture he always talks about (when he talks, that is), he’ll get rid of Jenkins now.