Giants fans who came out to MetLife Stadium for Monday night’s game against the Seahawks found themselves in a foul mood due to the home team’s play and they made their displeasure known by raining boos down on the Giants.
The offense was the main target of the boos as they allowed 10 sacks to the Seahawks defense over the course of the 24-3 loss. Right tackle Evan Neal could be seen gesturing to the crowd as the team left the field at the end of the first half and he shared his message on Wednesday.
“They were booing us, so I said, ‘Boo louder!’” Neal said, via Darryl Slater of NJ.com.
Neal has garnered his share of criticism since being selected in the first round of the 2022 draft and Monday’s performance only added to it, but he said he knows he’s improving and that he doesn’t consider those who were booing him to be real fans of the team anyway.
“The person that’s commenting on my performance, what does he do? Flip hot dogs and hamburgers somewhere? . . . Most critics really don’t understand the game of football to the level that we understand it in this building,” Neal said. “So why would a lion concern himself with the opinion of a sheep? I’m just going to focus on Evan — and getting better. I honestly do not care what anybody has to say about Evan Neal, because they’re going to talk anyway. At the end of the day, I put a lot of good things on film. But people are going to go and find the bad reps, and that’s what they’re going to highlight. That’s what they’re going to put out there. I can’t control that. So why should I care?”
Neal’s view that “people are fair-weather” isn’t likely to win him much more support than his play has this season, but winning games would go a long way toward making things more pleasant around the team. If not, Neal probably won’t have to encourage anyone at future home games to boo louder.
