LOOKING SLICK:
Ben’s slick look a Giant change
Ben McAdoo has gone from Benny with the Good Hair to Benny with the Slick New ’Do.
The Giants’ 39-year-old head coach — whose high-school haircut drew heat from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on radio last season and inspired a nickname scrawled on a Barstool Sports T-shirt —showed up for the start of minicamp Tuesday with an unreal, slicked back fade that Fox sports host Duke Castiglione aptly suggested may have been inspired by Miami Heat president Pat Riley.
Perhaps McAdoo is trying out as Ponyboy in a remake of “The Outsiders.”
McAdoo chuckled and admitted his players had gotten on him about the new look, with a low blade on the sides and a uniform, straight back comb job on top.
“They’ve been pushing me,” McAdoo said, smirking at the Riley comment.
Famed prankster Eli Manning then piled on wryly.
“No, never,” Manning said of players ragging on McAdoo. “Can’t get on the head coach ever, right? I thought it looked outstanding. You’ve got to keep it fresh, yes. I thought he must have media today.”
McAdoo last season cracked up his players by wearing that Barstool T-shirt with his image and the Benny with the Good Hair phrase as a subtle response to the rip from Christie, a Cowboys fan.
The Giants players were wearing the Tshirts after a late season game against the Eagles, but it wasn’t celebrated because the team lost that Week 16 game in Philadelphia.
McAdoo’s unique look also inspired a young Giants fan in Cleveland last season to show up front row as a spitting image of the coach, hair and headset and all. And the Giants’ coach playfully acknowledged the young man and approved.
GENO TIME: Ex-Jet Geno Smith, who’s coming off a torn ACL, is “progressing,” McAdoo said. When asked if Smith will be 100 percent by training camp, McAdoo said, “When he’s clear, they’ll let me know.” Smith, Josh Johnson and third-round pick Davis Webb are the QB’s competing behind Eli Manning on the depth chart.
“We braced him up today,” McAdoo said of Smith’s Tuesday participation. “We put him out there, we had him do 7-on-7s with the half-line rush just to get some work against the rush so if he has to move and has to reset in the pocket, he has some experience doing that before we come back in training camp. It’ll boost his confidence and I thought he had a good first day of it.”