Stephen A. Smith's abuse against the Giants was based on obvious lies.
Smith also went on a rant on Friday's “First Take,” saying that a Giants staffer contacted ESPN's office and executives about host Elle Duncan's criticism of Daniel Jones. However, the Post found that no one on the team actually did so.
“The New York Giants respectfully kept silent,” Smith said Friday of Duncan's criticism of Jones. “You guys are terrible as an organization. We won a Super Bowl in 2007, we won a Super Bowl in 2011. Other than that, since 2011, which is 13 years, the Giants have made the playoffs twice. They won one game in the playoffs.
“And it takes a lot of guts to sit there and call the office and complain to the executive about someone who went on national television to do his job. Why aren't we doing our job as an organization?”
Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Pat Hanlon was critical of Duncan's comments on the X, but as Smith emphasized, no one from the team contacted ESPN's offices or executives.
Smith's suggestion that the Giants did it was either an exaggeration or an outright lie.
ESPN declined to comment on the discrepancy.
Duncan defeated Jones on Thursday for writing up and reading out comments Jones made to the media after he was benched by the Giants.
An emotional Jones specifically thanked the Giants organization and his teammates during his talk.
Duncan soon came under fire for badmouthing her.
“Do you guys think he had this in his notes from like 2020? Truth be told, DJ, I could have saved you like 90 seconds,” Duncan said. I said it in one of the “Taking the Elle” segments. “Rewrite: It's a shame we paid $108 million for one playoff win. And I'm looking forward to reviving my career as Brock Purdy's backup. End.”
On Friday, Duncan doubled down.
“We had a surprising amount of snow during our drive yesterday, so it's been rough this morning.''Duncan I wrote to X. “You might say it's impossible to escape these snowflakes…”
Duncan grinned and drank from a mug while Smith made the accusation on Friday's “First Take.”
“This is an outcome-based business,” Smith said. “No one talks about your personal life, no one has anything to do with it. Your performance has been public and you've been under .500 in 20 games. You've been hated. You did badly as a quarterback for the New York Giants, and on top of that, they released Saquon Barkley to take care of you. I gave it to you, but this is also a stain.”
The Giants named third-stringer Tommy DeVito the starting quarterback for Sunday's game against the Buccaneers at MetLife Stadium, bypassing reserve Drew Lock.
However, Lock remained the backup, and Jones was demoted to No. 4 on the depth chart after the Giants signed Tim Boyle to the practice squad.
He asked for and was granted his release from the Giants on Friday.
