Hart: I didn’t quit on Blue
Former Giants right tackle Bobby Hart found a new home with the Cincinnati Bengals on Wednesday and denies he ever quit on the Giants.
Hart, 23, was waived by the Giants with an injury designation prior to Week 17 after he expressed that he did not want to play in the final game as he was nursing an ankle injury that plagued him all season.
Giants GM Dave Gettleman, who was hired that same week, waived Hart a day before the game.
Hart then got into a spat with former Giants offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz on Twitter, where he admitted he quit, telling Schwartz, “You quit on the team my rookie year after you Bowl XLII drive.
But that was on Feb. 3, 2008.
The last two seasons, as Ben McAdoo’s offense floundered, the head coach constantly harped on the need for Manning to better move his feet, buy time and make more accurate throws off-balance or from uncomfortable positions.
McAdoo’s comments sometimes went too far and made the coach seem unaccountable, throwing Manning under the bus. And it is of course a coach’s job secured your guaranteed money bro. Maybe I learned shutting it down from you.”
In a statement through the Bengals, Hart says that was all false.
“It’s frustrating seeing all those things about you that you know are not true,” Hart said. “The main thing I took from (Marvin Lewis) is he’s not just blowing smoke. You can just feel the genuine aspect coming from him. When you get labeled those things, you kind of start to develop a wall, a shield where you block people out and don’t let people in. But when you talk to him and you feel how genuine he is, that wall just comes down. You just listen to him and you can feel he cares.”
Hart battled an ankle injury throughout the 2017 season but had various instances of to build a team around the personnel he has, so McAdoo’s and Jerry Reese’s judgment that the problem was Manning — and not the offensive line — ultimately led to their firings on Dec. 4. But it’s important to note that McAdoo came to the Giants from working with Rodgers and the Packers in Green Bay, and while he and Manning had success together in 2014-15 with McAdoo as offensive coordinator, McAdoo as head coach never stopped stressing how having a immaturity and underwhelming performance that led to his demise with the Giants.
The seventh-round pick was one of the players in the Giants locker room yukking it up just steps away from Eli Manning’s locker room as the Giants quarterback was in tears explaining why he was not going to be starting that week.
Hart also foolishly flapped his arms like wings to mock the Eagles in Week 15 when the Giants were 2-11. They would go on to lose that game to the eventual Super Bowl champions.
Hart joins a Bengals offensive line that struggled to protect Andy Dalton in 2017, allowing the quarterback to be sacked 39 times — the sixth most in the NFL. At the very least, Hart adds depth to the Bengals’ offensive line woes.