More Giants drama: Landon Collins says he tried to help Eli Apple, Apple says he hasn't

Frank Schwab
·NFL writer

The New York Giants will probably consider the rest of this season a success if it ends without a brawl in the locker room.

The Giants are a mess, and have been all season. The record has been awful and the entire season has been full of stories of drama within their ranks. The strangest story might have come this week. Safety Landon Collins said he has talked to cornerback Eli Apple, a 2016 first-round pick, to help him through his struggles on and off the field. That’s great. Except Apple said that never happened.

This started when Apple retweeted a highlight of Dallas Cowboys running back Rod Smith’s 81-yard touchdown against the Giants. Apple, who was inactive, retweeted it during the game. Even though Apple and Smith were teammates at Ohio State it reportedly upset some of the Giants, and understandably so. Apple has had a very disappointing season, and that added to it. Collins, one of the Giants’ best players, said he tried to help.

“I had a sitdown with him. A couple of us have had a sitdown with him,” Collins said, according to NJ.com. “We just said that regardless of the situation, we’ve got your back. You’re our brother … at the end of the day, we have to go into battle with him.”

Collins also said, regarding Apple’s various issues this season, “It’s mental. Right now, he has a lot of personal issues. It’s not confidence.” Apple has played poorly and his effort has been questioned, among other things. He was also benched in a game for disciplinary reasons. Collins’ words might have been tough love, but at least Collins was trying to help. Except, Apple said Thursday that he never talked to Collins.

“Landon, no,” Apple said, according to NJ.com. “But I talked to Brandon Marshall. DRC [Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie] has always been a good person to talk to because he kind of went through the same thing, when he was around my age a little bit. I just talked to some of the guys, and it helped me out.”

Apple confirmed two more times that he was saying Collins never sat down to talk with him.

“I guess he don’t remember things,” Collins said, according to Art Stapleton of the Bergen Record.

And after that, Collins tweeted this:

Perhaps Collins was referring to something entirely separate from the sudden beef with Apple. If so, the timing was a bit strange.

This Giants season is going down as one of the worst in franchise history. It didn’t get any better with this strange feud between two of their defensive backs. Don’t worry Giants fans, the season will be over in 17 days.

New York Giants' Eli Apple has had a very disappointing second season. (AP)
New York Giants’ Eli Apple has had a very disappointing second season. (AP)

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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!