Janoris Jenkins promises Giants will be on their best behavior
New York Giants defensive back Janoris Jenkins speaks with the media during the first day of voluntary mini camp at Quest Diagnostics Training Center on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Janoris Jenkins did everything but cross his heart and pinkie-swear.
“I promise y’all that Jackrabbit says it won’t happen this year what happened last year,” the Giants cornerback said of the anger, distraction and shenanigans that marred the locker room while the Giants went 3-13 in 2017. “There won’t be any animosity between players, no disrespecting the coach. There will be none of that. New York Giant football is back.”
Jenkins, of course, had a role in that dysfunction. He was suspended for one game when he did not attend the first practice after the bye week. He was one of three cornerbacks who were suspended, along with Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Eli Apple. By the final week of the season, safety Landon Collins had called Apple a “cancer” in a radio interview.
“I learned a lot,” Jenkins said of the 2017 season. “Just facing adversity. Whether it’s me not showing up to practice or us losing, everybody not on the same page. Just ready to kick off and pile energy all year.”
Jenkins has been one of the Giants’ best players during his tenure with the team. Now, it seems, he wants to become a leader, too. He seems to have taken over the role of mentor to Apple, which was held by Rodgers-Cromartie until he was released this offseason.
“I talk to him, text him and make sure he’s in high spirits and is ready to work,” Jenkins said of Apple. “I’m just trying to be a big brother . . . We have always been close. It’s just when adversity hit, everybody adjusted and made the wrong mistakes and talked about each other the wrong way. Like I said, just pull him in closer, pull everybody in closer like brotherly love, and just keep it moving.”
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.
