Stephen A. Smith berated the Giants in a scathing rant while defending his ESPN colleague Elle Duncan, who might’ve made herself an enemy of the Giants.
Duncan’s remarks about Daniel Jones’ farewell speech — during which he thanked the Giants before they granted his release on Friday — didn’t sit well with Giants faithful, including Pat Hanlon, the team’s senior vice president of communications, who called her out on X.
During Friday’s installment of “First Take,” Smith told the Giants to stop whining and claimed the organization called ESPN to complain about Duncan’s “Taking the L” segment about Jones.
“The New York Giants, respectfully, shut the hell up,” Smith said. “Y’all are awful as an organization … Y’all are sorry! Y’all are pathetic! The only reason why you get away with it is because the Jets have been worse … and you’ve got the nerve to sit up there and call the network because you want to whine and moan about your ineptitude being put on public display?”
Duncan didn’t spare Jones one bit while discussing him getting benched for Tommy DeVito and demoted to fourth string after he was unable to control the Giants’ offense.
“You guys think he had this saved in his notes since like 2020? In all seriousness, DJ, I could have saved you like 90 seconds,” Duncan said, referring to his speech.
“A rewrite: I’m sorry you paid me $108 million for one playoff win. And I look forward to reviving my career as Brock Purdy’s backup. The end.”
Hanlon wasn’t thrilled with Duncan’s remarks.
“That an ESPN personality would mock Daniel Jones’ statement today is mind boggling,” he wrote on X. “Given what has happened at that company over past few years, tone deaf.”
Hanlon didn’t explain further about what happened at ESPN.
The company recently went through multiple rounds of layoffs.
Many Big Blue fans thought Duncan was overly harsh and disrespectful to Jones.
Duncan, who was a guest on Friday’s “First Take,” stood by her comments.
“You want to call me disrespectful to Daniel Jones?” she said. “Am I more disrespectful than the Giants making him a scout team safety? Am I more disrespectful than all of those same fans that are in my mentions right now who booed him mercilessly for the last six seasons? I stand by everything that I said.”
