Giants' Wink Martindale, Xavier McKinney 'moving on' from Raiders postgame comments

Wink Martindale clearly was affected by the comments made by safety Xavier McKinney immediately after Sunday’s game. 

McKinney suggested in the locker room after Raiders 30, Giants 6, that the voices of team leaders and captains were not being heard on the defensive side of the ball. He did not name names. 

Asked Thursday if the criticism stung, the defensive coordinator said yes. 

“It did because I’ve always been open, I’ve always been honest with players and I think if you have a problem, it’s just how we handle things in that room,” he said. “Yeah, you read it and go, ‘What? What is he talking about?’” 

Added Martindale, “It’s alright, we are moving on from it.” 

 Martindale understood that the comments came from the disappointment of a 2-7 start to the season. 

“Sure, it’s frustration,” Martindale said. “It’s easy for me to come up and talk about it five days later . . . , It’s easy for me to do now. I don’t know how I would’ve reacted or what I would have said if [you came to me and said], ‘He said this, how do you feel?’ ” 

Martindale absolutely took McKinney’s words personally. That was obvious in listening to his voice and seeing his expression. 

“Yeah, I mean it surprised me because it’s the first time it’s ever happened in my career,” he said, “[That a player] would make a statement like that. I think it was a case where  [McKinney] is just frustrated from losing. We spoke, we cleared it up.” 

In his second season with the Giants, Martindale, is in his 19th season in the NFL and his 36th year in coaching. 

McKinney did not talk to reporters in the locker room Thursday. 

Martindale said McKinney’s explanation to him indicated that he objected to playing a particular coverage. It was a coverage that Martindale said the Giants ran once in the game. 

Asked if McKinney would be in his usual position as a starting safety on Sunday, Martindale said he believed so, but deferred to coach Brian Daboll. 

Daboll responded “yes,” regarding McKinney’s role remaining the same against Dallas. 

And players, including Kayvon Thibodeaux, indicated they were looking ahead. 

“I’m focusing on the Cowboys,” Thibodeaux said. 

McKinney made the comments to ESPN in the postgame locker room at Allegiant Stadium. 

In part, he said: “I don’t think they've done a great job of letting the leaders lead and listening to the leaders and the captains. It was one of those things where you have some of your leaders, captains from a defensive standpoint, trying to switch things up. And just not really being heard. I don’t know. There are other things that we could’ve done.” 

In an appearance Tuesday, where McKinney provided Thanksgiving turkeys and fixings to families, he indicated that he and Martindale had cleared the air. 

“We met and we’re going to keep pushing,” McKinney said. “We got on the same page.” 

McKinney is in his fourth season as a Giant. Last season, during the Giants bye week, he got into an ATV accident and shattered his hand. He said later that he “came close” to losing three fingers. 

McKinney missed seven games because of the injury. During that time, the Giants were not obligated to pay McKinney because it was a non-football injury. They continued to pay him the entire time. He returned for the last regular-season game of the season and appeared in the playoffs. 

By Kimberly Jones

kimberly.jones@newsday.comkimjonessports

Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.