BIG FINE FOR WALKIE-TALKING
Clearly, the NFL did not like seeing Ben McAdoo using a walkie-talkie on the sideline last week to call in plays to Eli Manning against the Cowboys. And the league came down with its punishment Tuesday, docking the team $150,000, fining McAdoo $50,000 and dropping the team’s 2017 fourth-round draft pick to the end of the round.
“It was a clear violation of the rules, and we accept full responsibility and the penalty,’’ the Giants said in a statement.
The Post was the f i rs t to report last week the NFL was investigating the matter and that a fine was expected.
The fourth-round pick for the Giants will now come after all the compensatory picks in the round, a drop of a maximum of 12 spots.
The radio transmitter in Manning’s helmet went out in the fourth quarter of the 10-7 victory, forcing Manning to walk to the sideline to get the plays and Odell Beckham Jr. to run the plays in after he drifted over to the sideline to get the call. McAdoo was then handed a walkietalkie and used it to call four plays into Manning, a violation of league rules that call for communication between the sideline and the quarterback to shut off when 15 seconds remain on the play clock. With the walkie- talkies, that shutoff was not able to be monitored or enforced.
“I don’t know when he was on the walkie-talkie or not,’’ Manning told The Post last week. “I just knew it was back in my ear and we were going.’’
Informed that using a walkietalkie might not be legal, Manning said, “I don’t know if we did or didn’t or what happened there.’’