Janoris Jenkins not specific about reason for no-show last week
Giants cornerback Janoris Jenkins looks on from the sideline during a preseason game against the Steelers at MetLife Stadium on Aug. 11, 2017. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Asked publicly for the first time why he was suspended last week, Janoris Jenkins gave a succinct and honest answer.
“I just didn’t show up,” he said Thursday.
That pretty much covered it. The Pro Bowl cornerback missed the Oct. 30 practice with the Giants, their first workout after the bye. He was one of three players unable to attend the practice but the only one who did not call to let the team know he could not make it. Ben McAdoo suspended him indefinitely, a punishment that was lifted on Tuesday of this week.
“Whatever he gave me, he gave me,” Jenkins said of his discipline. “I took it and accepted it and I’m back at work and I’m happy to be here.”
Jenkins did not go into detail about where he was, why he was unable to make it back to New Jersey from Florida, or why he did not call.
“It was something that me and Coach already talked about,” he said. “That’s behind me. I’m here today. I’m not worrying about what’s gone on in previous days. I’m just here to work.”
Nor was he particularly remorseful.
“Hey, man, it happened already,” he said. “Moving forward from that. I ain’t going to say I got regrets, I ain’t going to say I don’t have regrets . . . It happened. We got it out of the way. New week.”
When he was reinstated Tuesday, Jenkins did not address the team. That was something fellow cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie did when he returned to the locker room after his one-week suspension in early October.
“Those guys know how I feel about football, about being around them,” Jenkins said. “So once I got back, I felt welcome and I’m just happy to be here.”
While he was away, the Giants lost to the Rams, 51-17.
“It was hard,” he said of watching that game, “but I wasn’t out there, so nothing I can do.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
