The team said the cornerback’s refusal to acknowledge his “offensive” language factored in his release.
The New York Giants announced Friday that
they had waived Janoris Jenkins, two days after the injured cornerback
used a slur against a fan who had been critical of the team’s
performance in a Twitter exchange.
The
exchange occurred Wednesday morning when Jenkins listed his statistical
line for this season, including his total number of tackles,
interceptions and passes broken up, in a Twitter post.
The
fan then asked Jenkins, an eight-year National Football League veteran,
whether that mattered after the Giants dropped their 11th game of the
season in an overtime loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night.
The team has won only twice this season and has the second-worst record
in the league.
Jenkins responded, “I only can do my job.. retard.” He later offered an apology for his word choice, but said he “didn’t mean no HARM.”
“From ownership to management to our
football operations, we felt it was in the best interests of the
franchise and the player,” Shurmur said. “Obviously, what happened this
week, and the refusal to acknowledge the inappropriate and offensive
language, was the determining factor.”
The
Giants said Jenkins engaged in the “inappropriate” exchange with the
fan while he was rehabbing an ankle injury during Wednesday’s practice,
which Jenkins denied during his media availability on Thursday.
Jenkins
appeared to shrug off his release in a series of Twitter posts on
Friday, writing “Best news ever.. Thank you.” He later wished his
teammates well.
“I Just want to thank the organization
for the opportunity & good luck to my brothers that remains a
Giant!” he wrote. “Again, want my fans to know my intentions are always
pure and genuine.”
Jenkins, who goes by the nickname Jackrabbit, did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment on Friday.
This is not the first time Jenkins’s off-field actions have cost him a roster spot.
Once
considered a top N.F.L. prospect, he was dismissed by the University of
Florida football team in 2011 after his second arrest in three months
on marijuana possession charges. In 2009, Jenkins was arrested during a
fight outside a Gainesville, Fla., nightclub.
A
native of Pahokee, Fla., Jenkins completed his college career at the
University of North Alabama and was selected in the second round of the
2012 draft by the Rams, when the team played in St. Louis.
In
2018, the body of a family friend, Roosevelt Rene, was found outside
Jenkins’s New Jersey home. Jenkins’s brother, William Jenkins Jr., was
later charged with causing fatal injuries to Rene during a fight at the player’s home in Fair Lawn, N.J.
Jenkins
became the second N.F.L. player to be cut this season for inflammatory
language on Twitter. In November, the Cleveland Browns released safety
Jermaine Whitehead after a profanity-laced rant in which he made
threatening comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment