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Giants corner suspended indefinitely as McAdoo stays quiet:
Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie gave his best wishes Thursday to Donte Deayon, the undrafted free agent corner out of Boise State who was signed off the practice squad and likely will make his NFL debut Sunday in Denver in place of his suspended mentor.
“Definitely bittersweet, but I’ve talked to Cro,” Deayon, 23, told the Daily News Thursday. “He’s excited for me. I am as well, and I’m gonna make the most of it.”
Meanwhile, get a load of Ben McAdoo, whose policy on Thursdays this season has been to answer pre-submitted questions from the media through a team employee. Talk about transparency.
The transcript of McAdoo’s ‘interview’ this Thursday concluded with two questions that were materially different. The first was: What made you decide to suspend Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie indefinitely on Thursday rather than for a set amount of time? There was no response listed. The second question was: Why did DRC’s actions on Sunday result in benching him when other actions by players such as Janoris Jenkins walking off the field early, Ereck Flowers shoving a reporter last year, and Odell Beckham Jr. slamming the kicking net last year and his TD celebration this year did not result in a benching?
“When we can, we handle team discipline internally,” McAdoo answered. That’s it. So, speculating — since that is the only option with such an arrangement and answers — here is what the coach appeared to be saying through his shroud of secrecy:
1. The difference between Rodgers-Cromartie’s situation and the Jenkins/Flowers/Beckham examples is that Rodgers-Cromartie forced McAdoo to suspend him and make it public by leaving the building on Wednesday. Otherwise, he just would have been benched inhouse for Sunday’s game in Denver.
2. Though McAdoo didn’t answer the first question, it’s possible he meant that Rodgers-Cromartie’s suspension was indefinite as an extra form of discipline for the veteran corner’s decision to go public himself Wednesday in defense of the accusations of his behavior coming from the Giants.
Of course, all of this would be — as Rodgers-Cromartie so accurately said to ESPN on Wednesday — “BS.”
For one, ESPN reported that Cromartie is frustrated by McAdoo’s double standard enforcing new rules, which the coach put in place after Beckham’s dog-peeing touchdown celebration in Week 3 (for which Beckham was not benched). McAdoo’s policy reportedly is now to penalize game-day distractions with playing time, so the coach applied it to RodgersCromartie’s alleged Sunday outburst. But the veteran corner has to be wondering why him?
And indeed, why him? McAdoo’s insinuation that RodgersCromartie’s inability to keep his discipline in-house is the only difference from those other situations is ridiculous.
McAdoo did not bench Flowers a single snap for shoving a reporter in Week 5 last season in Green Bay. Look it up: he played all 67 offensive snaps the next week against the Ravens.
Beckham didn’t lose playing time for the kicking net, for his Minnesota meltdown, for ripping his helmet off against Baltimore, for his boat trip, for punching a hole in the wall at Lambeau Field, for pretending to pee like a dog in the end zone, or for refusing to apologize for it after co-owner John Mara condemned the act.
Then there is the curious case of Jenkins, who left the field with
40 seconds remaining in Sunday’s loss to the Chargers. Jenkins said on Thursday that the situation is “nothing serious or anything.”
“I mean, why would there be a punishment? Alright, no comment,” Jenkins said, clamming up.
But Jenkins revealed that McAdoo had asked Jenkins about his actions on Tuesday and then again revisited the matter on Thursday. What had changed from Tuesday to Thursday? Well, McAdoo had suspended one defensive back and probably was doubling back to make sure he hadn’t bungled another disciplinary matter.
Jenkins, meanwhile, took his head coach’s lead and when asked if the team is still together, Jenkins scanned the faces of a few local reporters with his eyes and said: “There’s people, like, you know, who try to cause distractions, but (we’ll) keep our heads together, stay tight and stay together.”
Nice. Follow the leader, right? That is not a good look for McAdoo and this all is not a good look for the so-called NYPD (New York Pass Defense), with one of its sergeants being asked for his gun and badge.
Apple gave an understandable answer to why so much frustration is coming out of the secondary: “I can’t really answer that other than we’re proud guys and we like to win and we get frustrated when we don’t. That’s just how it is.”
Defensive end Olivier Vernon insisted that McAdoo “does a great job in setting what we have to do” and said “we’ve always had order on the team.” So Vernon doesn’t view this situation as McAdoo losing control.
So be it. But McAdoo’s beef with Rodgers-Cromartie isn’t going away no matter how the coach tries to hide.