Jason Pierre-Paul sacks New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez in second preseason game
After the preseason game against the New York Jets on Saturday night a video posted by New York Giants punter Steve Weatherford was on his Twitter account and quickly went viral.
In the video you see defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul carrying cornerback Prince Amukamara over his shoulders. You can hear players all around laughing a yelling, “COLD TUB! COLD TUB!” Pierre-Paul then dumps Amukamara into one of the cold tubs in the locker room head first.
My first reaction was boys will be boys. All it looked like was a prank.
Suddenly, thanks to Weatherford posting the video he shot and social media, everyone was able to see this prank. Some had the same view as me. Some, not so much.
Some were saying that this incident is going to bring trouble to the Giants locker room and Pierre-Paul should be punished. My question: Why?
Athletes in every sport all around the country, and possibly the world, pull pranks on their teammates. When I was in high school my soccer coach used to pull pranks on us.
I can understand Tom Coughlin’s issue with this. It’s his opinion on being upset with the behavior, but what I agree with is that it was a bigger issue that it was posted online.
“There may have … as I’m understanding it, there were some parts of it that were inappropriate. In no way is anything that occurs within this family or within our group should that be a part of any social media aspect. So I am going to address that strongly because I spent a little time on that this preseason. I will look into that further,” said Coughlin.
I’m all for pranks on teammates. Giants quarterback Eli Manning is known around the team for pulling pranks. One thing that needs to be done, though, is keeping this in the house. No one outside that Giants locker room should be seeing this.
Pranks and rookie hazings are a way of bringing teammates together for a better relationship and comradery. Once information gets in the hands of the media, especially in New York, it can blow up a non-issue to an issue. That’s exactly what happened here.
Weatherford did later apologize via Twitter the following day and took down the video.
“I want to apologize to the fans… The video I posted was distasteful,” Weatherford tweeted. “Our team is a family, and we love each other. I am sorry to the fans.”
There was no real need for Weatherford to apologize, but he showed a bit of class in doing so.
Coughlin will likely speak not only to the parties involved, but probably to the entire team on the importance of keeping team actions in the locker room. Even though this was all in good fun, there was no reason for NFL fans to see this video.
Amukamara didn’t understand why he was still being pranked because he’s not a rookie anymore, but reiterated to the media that it’s out of love from his teammates. “Yeah, um, well, I mean, I just don’t get it. I don’t understand the rules,” Amukamara told the Newark Star-Ledger on Saturday night after the Giants beat the Jets, 26-3. “I mean, I’m not a rookie anymore, so I don’t know why I’m getting thrown in the tub. I know it’s all love. No one ever likes it, especially when it’s you versus eight and no one’s helping you. But it doesn’t mess up our team morale or anything.”
So at the end of the day, this incident doesn’t effect the team in any negative way. Let’s put this issue aside and move on.
