Earlier this week, Giants safety Antrel Rolle sounded off regarding the sound of booing that emerged from the stands at the New Meadowlands Stadium on Sunday as the Giants struggled against the Jaguars. On Thursday, he was at it again.
Per multiple accounts and reports, Rolle said that football players shouldn’t be booed because “when soldiers come home from Iraq you don’t boo them.”
To his credit, Rolle is smart enough to realize the stupidity of his words.
“I gave the analogy as far as when you have troops coming from Iraq they don’t get booed. And you know, it’s not even a comparable analogy,” he said not long after making the comments, according to Mike Garafolo of the Newark Star-Ledger. “You cannot remotely compare what we do as opposed to what they do. They’re fighting for our freedom, they’re fighting for our country, we’re out there playing a game. At the end of the day, it’s a game. We get paid a lot of money, I understand that. But at the end of the day it’s a game. . . .
“But some people, I’m sure they’re going to take that and run and say, ‘Oh my God, Antrel is comparing himself to troops in Iraq.’ No I’m not comparing myself to troops in Iraq,” Rolle said. “I couldn’t [serve in the military]. I’m not brave enough to do it. I’ll be the first one to admit it. I’m not brave enough to do that so I’ll definitely tip my hat to those guys and those troopers that risk their lives and put their lives on the line in order for me to play the sport I love to play.
“It’s not Antrel comparing himself. I’m just going to clear that up so you know that. It’s not that at all.”
Thereafter, someone in the Giants organization was smart enough to “help” Rolle craft a written statement.
“I used a very poor, inappropriate example earlier today to demonstrate how seriously I take my job,” the statement reads. “Obviously there is no comparison between the men and women of our military putting their life on the line defending our country and what I do. They risk their lives and that gives me the opportunity to play a game for a living. After I made my earlier comments, somebody even said to me: how would your father, who is the chief of police in Homestead and puts himself at risk every day, feel about the comparison you made? Again, it was a very poor, very inappropriate choice of words.”
Meanwhile, Rolle finally seems to be realizing that when playing in New York anything outlandish and/or stupid he says will be magnified.
“Something as far as, ‘Do you like booing?’ makes national news. It’s all over the place. I’m like, ‘Are you serious?’” he said, per the Star-Ledger. “My mom called me and was like, ‘Boy, what did you say now?’ I’m like, ‘I didn’t say nothing.’ . . . From now on if I feel they’re trying to trigger something in order to broadcast, I’ll just tell them, ‘No comment.’”
Though there’s a way to provide sound bites to the media without saying anything inflammatory or misguided, if Rolle hasn’t mastered that distinction, it makes more sense to say nothing at all.
