CriticsC see fresh ammo with Feely’s ‘joke’

Jay Feely’s leg wasn’t the only weapon he possessed. The former Giants and Jets kicker was photographed Saturday in a “joke” prom picture, with his daughter and her boyfriend, in which Feely has his arm around his daughter and a gun in his other hand, near the boyfriend — who wears a restrained smile.

The social-media blowback and praise came instantly from both sides for the “Bad Boys II”-inspired image.

Feely explained the photograph by saying it was all in good fun.

“The prom picture I posted was obviously intended to be a joke,” Feely wrote Sunday. “My Daughter has dated her boyfriend for over a year and they knew I was joking. I take gun safety seriously (the gun was not loaded and had no clip in) and I did not intend to be insensitive to that important issue.”

The original image racked up more than 37,000 likes and thousands of replies, with critics lambasting everything from the casual use of a gun to the culture of daughters as pure objects that need to be protected. Its defenders — Feely’s father included — rolled their eyes.

“Hey, not a big fan of guns,” Tom Feely tweeted, “but there are some times you just have to make a point. In this case, all is just in fun. These two kids have been dating for several years and they are fully trusted.”

Feely is now a CBS Sports analyst after a 14-year NFL career, which ended in 2014. He was with the Giants in 2005 and ’06 and the Jets in 2008 and ’09.