Evan Neal knows better than that.
He knows better than to chop block Giants fans, and he knows that they have every right to boo him when he doesn’t do the job that he is paid handsomely to do as the seventh pick of the 2022 NFL Draft.
I cringed when I saw the quotes on NJ. com — “Why would a lion concern himself with the opinion of a sheep? The person that’s commenting on my performance, what does he do? Flip hot dogs and hamburgers somewhere?” — because Evan Neal happens to be one of the good guys, high in character and smarts, and if he wasn’t, Joe Schoen would not have drafted him in the first place.
But Evan Neal didn’t do himself any favors here.
And he thankfully recognized as much he tweeted and booed himself a little after 9:30 Wednesday night:
“I am wrong for lashing out at the fans who are just as passionate and frustrated as I am. I let my frustrations in my play + desire to win get the best of me. I had no right to make light of anyone’s job and I deeply regret the things I said. We are working day in and day out to grow as a team and this was an unnecessary distraction. I apologize.”
The hamburger or hot-dog flipper he referenced doesn’t make millions, which makes his personal sacrifice to pay for his ticket and hope to cheer for his Giants that much greater.
The fact of the matter is it wouldn’t have mattered if that were Taylor Swift booing.
The first quarter of the season has gone haywire for Neal, and for virtually every one of his teammates, and Neal could not contain the simmering rage inside him that followed the Seahawks sacking Daniel Jones 10 times on Monday night.
So he ended up sacking himself.
I’ve covered sports around these parts longer than Evan Neal has been alive. I have witnessed Hall of Famers being booed.
This was Derek Jeter, who was batting .197, on the boobirds in 2004: “I don’t blame them. We would have booed ourselves tonight, too. It’s hard to imagine being worse than we were tonight. Put me at the front of that list.”
Yankees fans had the gall to boo Mariano Rivera at the start of the 2005 season. A half-smiling Rivera: “There are always about 20,000 Red Sox fans here when we play them. Maybe it was only Sox fans who were booing.”
That is the way you handle it in this town. Jack McDowell flipped off Yankees boobirds walking off the mound in 1995. Wrong. Carlos Rodon blew boobirds a kiss this season. Wrong. Richard Todd gave Shea Stadium boobirds the finger. Wrong. Joe Namath was benched after four first-half interceptions in 1976 and said: “The people up in the stands never had much to cheer about this year. They could have gotten down on us a lot more. They deserve a better team.”
Homegrown Yankee Mickey Mantle was booed, at least until it was outsider Roger Maris who broke Babe Ruth’s single-season HR record in 1961.
“I can’t take much more of this,” Maris would say once to Mantle, who replied: “You have to get used to it.”
The hamburger flipper or the hot-dog flipper came to MetLife Stadium to cheer. There was nothing to cheer. It is Evan Neal’s job to turn the jeers into cheers.
Phil Simms was a convenient target of the boobirds early in his career. There were boos reserved for Eli Manning in 2011. “I didn’t hear any of it — you’re out there just concentrating and trying to figure what the defense is doing and how you can attack it and make some plays,” Manning said. “I thought they were booing someone else.”
Block it out next time, Evan Neal.
Giants fans are expecting Neal to take the same second-year leap that left tackle Andrew Thomas did. Thomas was booed, too.
“Boo louder!” Neal implored Giants fans on Monday night.
And rest assured they will, until he starts playing better.
Some might not accept his apology. Here’s hoping they do. Good guys make mistakes, too.