Xavier McKinney called of the Giants coaching staff after last weekend’s loss to the Raiders, telling reporters that he doesn’t feel the coaches have done a good job listening to the team captains and “letting the leaders lead.”
Defensive coordinator Wink Martindale responded to those comments on Thursday, telling reporters that it was the first time in his career hearing that kind of comment from one of his players.
“That’s kind of passive-aggressive, that’s the way that sounded,” Boomer said of Martindale’s remarks. “Most coaches would say ‘That’s a player blowing off steam,’ but in this case, Wink is saying ‘That’s the first time anyone’s ever said that about me.’ The reason I think Wink is saying that is because the last thing you want is your players turning on you, especially publicly.”
Regardless of the tone of Martindale’s comments, Boomer would cut down McKinney’s playing time on Sunday against Dallas.
“I wouldn’t start him,” Boomer said. “He’s not gonna be here next year.”
Gio disagreed with Boomer on Martindale’s tone, but he does agree that McKinney deserves to be disciplined.
“It sounds aggressive-aggressive,” Gio said. “He’s not dancing around the issue. He’s just hitting it with a sledgehammer…it sounded like they spoke about it, and he felt like he needed to get out in front of it like ‘Hey, if this falls apart, don’t look at me. Look at the players.’
“It was a ridiculous statement to say after that loss…the self-awareness of some of these guys just blows my mind.”