COUGHLIN: COOL IT!
Wants Giants to put social media on ice after tub video goes viral
IT MAY HAVE JUST been a locker room prank, but Tom Coughlin would’ve been happier if it had never left the room.
Instead, a video of Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul carrying a clearly unhappy teammate, Prince Amukamara, and dumping him into a tub of cold water became an Internet sensation on Sunday, hours after it was tweeted by the man who filmed it, Giants punter Steve Weatherford. The video, which Weatherford posted before the Giants’ 26-3 win over the Jets Saturday night, features some harsh and racially insensitive language, which led Coughlin to label some of it “inappropriate.”
The two-time Super Bowl- winning coach seemed most upset, though, that the video – which even Weatherford later described as “distasteful” — became public at all.
“I’m going to look into it. I’m going to talk to the parties involved,” Coughlin said on a conference call with reporters on Sunday. “As I’m understanding it there were some parts of it that were inappropriate. In no way is anything that occurs within this family or group, should that be a part of any kind of social media. So I’m going to address that strongly. I’ve spent a little time on that this preseason. So I’ll look into it further.”
The video begins with the 6-5, 278-pound Pierre-Paul carrying the 6-foot, 207-pound Amukamara through the hallways behind the Giants’ locker room towards a room filled with cold tubs. As Pierre-Paul squeezes through doorways a group of unseen Giants teammates can be heard shouting “Cold tub! Cold tub!”
A few others seem to be taunting or challenging Amukamara, yelling, “Prince, what are you doing fool?” and,“You better stand up for yourself.”
Amukamara — who has admitted to being the target of several similar pranks last year when he was a rookie — is eventually flipped over and dumped head first into a tub barely big enough to hold his entire body. He appears unhurt as he gets up wiping the ice cold water from his eyes, but he also looks angry or unhappy at being the target of the prank.
After a disgusted Amukamara shakes his head and walks away, the camera turns to Pierre-Paul who is celebrating his achievement with inappropriate and offensive language – including use of the n-word — while high-fiving teammates as he leaves the room. One of the last images on the video is of Giants defensive tackle Chris Canty reaching for Weatherford’s camera and saying, “Steve, let me see the footage. You’ve got to show me the footage.”
According to a report, the original video tweeted by Weatherford was removed by Twitter for violating the company’s harassment policy. As of Sunday afternoon, the video was still available on VuMee.
Pranks, of course — even ones inolving cold tubs — are nothing new to NFL locker rooms. Eli Manning is one of the biggest pranksters in the Giants’ locker room, famous for everything from hiding clothes and car keys to changing the settings on teammates’ phones to putting purple dye in their gloves and helmets. Hazing of younger players is common, too. The Giants, for example, often have their rookies sing songs – perhaps their school fight song – in the dining hall at camp.