FULL OF SIT
Suspending some players while playing favorites with Beckham may be costing McAdoo locker room
Tom Coughlin prioritized winning over disciplining an out-of-control Odell Beckham Jr. when his job as Giants coach was hanging by a thread in 2015, and the c u lt u re established by enabling the team’s superstar receiver now is coming back to bite Coughlin’s successor, Ben McAdoo, in a big way.
But McAdoo is to blame, too, for continuing to let Beckham do as he pleased until the wideout broke his ankle in Week 5 against the Char
gers, only to treat other players differently once Beckham was out for the season and McAdoo’s new system of discipline no longer could be applied to OBJ. It all goes back to Beckham. Players know what’s fair and what’s not. The coach is the boss and deser ves respect from players, but they deserve consistency from him. And while Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Janoris Jenkins could have handled the situations better that resulted in their suspensions, their chafing about McAdoo’s sudden new sheriff routine is understandable given that it represents a McAdoo about-face. Changing your haircut in the offseason is one thing. Changing your consequences for players midstream — and only some players — is another. Coughlin started the enabling by letting Beckham turn that 2015 Week 15 game against Josh Norman and the Carolina Panthers into a street fight and never sitting Beckham down.
Coughlin never acted because he was desperate on the way to a fourth straight season without a playoff appearance.
McAdoo finally is doing the opposite of Coughlin and putting principles ahead of wins and losses by suspending Jenkins for his Monday practice absence and failure to check in — even though McAdoo desperately needs him and Jenkins is his top corner, and sitting him decreases the chances McAdoo’s Giants (1-6) will beat the visiting firstplace L.A. Rams (5-2) on Sunday.
The problem is McAdoo spent his rookie 2016 season letting Beckham do whatever he wanted, docking him no playing time for any of his outbursts, including punching a hole in the wall at Lambeau Field after the Wild Card playoff loss. The coach also docked left tackle Ereck Flowers no playing time for shoving a reporter in the regular season.
Beckham, well aware there are never playing-time consequences for his actions, then pretended to pee like a dog in the end zone in Week 3 of this season in Philadelphia. And McAdoo still made excuses for Beckham and would have continued to but co-owner John Mara finally stepped in and announced he was “very unhappy with Odell’s behavior.”
Suddenly, up sprung a McAdoo no-tolerance discipline system that included docking players playing time for breaking rules. But what do you know? Beckham wasn’t docked any playing time and started the next week’s game in Tampa Bay, even though the dog-peeing incident was strike 10 at least.
But you know who did receive discipline?
Eli Apple, docked three series against the Chargers, reportedly for talking back to a coach at practice; Rodgers-Cromartie, for several alleged practice and game violations, including an outburst during that same Week 5 loss; and now Jenkins.
But imagine if Beckham had returned late from that January Miami boat trip, and missed a practice or meeting. Do you really believe McAdoo would have docked him playing time that Sunday? Please.
It’s healthy for a culture when a coach sets expectations, holds his players to a high standard and holds everyone accountable to the same, consistent set of rules. And that’s what McAdoo said he told the players he was doing when he met with them Wednesday morning.
“The standards are the standards,” McAdoo said he told the players. “The win-loss record doesn’t change it. Your feelings don’t change it. Travel plans don’t change it. The standards are the standards and they’re going to stay high and we’re going to hold each other accountable.”
But what McAdoo left out is what does seem to change it is who you are: Are you Odell Beckham Jr., or are you someone else? Until next season at least, we won’t know the answer — if McAdoo is here to provide it, that is.