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Coughlin "miffed" after locker room prank


BlueInCanada

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http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000051996/article/tom-coughlin-miffed-after-giants-tub-prank-goes-viral

 

t turns out the Jets aren't the only New York team dealing with drama after Saturday's preseason meeting between interstate rivals.

New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin is unhappy after a video of cornerback Prince Amukamara being thrown into a cold tub by Jason-Pierre Paul went viral on Saturday night.

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The video -- shot by punter Steve Weatherford and available here (Warning: Salty language involved) -- shows Pierre-Paul carrying Amukamara over his shoulder down a hallway, through a set of doors before he tosses the cornerback into the water.

As you might imagine, Giants players who witnessed the prank were loving it. Coughlin, not so much.

"I'm going to look into it. I'm going to talk to the parties involved," Coughlin said during his Sunday teleconference, via the New York Daily News. "As I'm understanding it, there were some parts of it that were inappropriate. In no way is anything that occurs within this family or group, should that be a part of any kind of social media.

"So I'm going to address that strongly. I've spent a little time on that this preseason. So I'll look into it further."

Amukamara -- who, it should be noted, looks exceedingly displeased in the video -- thought his rookie hazing days were over.

"Yeah, um, well, I mean, I just don't get it. I don't understand the rules," he told The Star-Ledger. "I mean, I'm not a rookie anymore, so I don't know why I'm getting thrown in the tub. I know it's all love."

Rex Ryan can only wish these were the problems he had to deal with.

UPDATE: Weatherford issued an apology on Twitter, calling the video "distasteful."

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Prince looked very upset, and JPP was pretty disrespectful about it, too. Basically called him his biotch. Well dude, you have about 80 lbs on the guy. Wow, you really showed everybody what a big man you are. I'm sure they'll work it out. But that's not cool.

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Prince looked very upset, and JPP was pretty disrespectful about it, too. Basically called him his biotch. Well dude, you have about 80 lbs on the guy. Wow, you really showed everybody what a big man you are. I'm sure they'll work it out. But that's not cool.

 

I agree man...Prince seemed to be pretty upset talking about how he had to go through hazing last year and now getting dumped in the ice bath

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I don't know what to think of it, I mean I know hazing and comradery are nice to have on a football team build up player chemistry but it looks like Prince is pretty pissed off about what happened.

 

Maybe this was a case of just a bunch of players being an asshole to Prince, I'm sure Coughlin will get it sorted out or maybe Eli can smack some sense into JPP.

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I don't know what to think of it, I mean I know hazing and comradery are nice to have on a football team build up player chemistry but it looks like Prince is pretty pissed off about what happened.

 

Maybe this was a case of just a bunch of players being an asshole to Prince, I'm sure Coughlin will get it sorted out or maybe Eli can smack some sense into JPP.

 

I was thinking, he was injured in camp and preseason and the beginning of the regular season last year....maybe they didn't get enough hazing in after all......

 

But yeah, he looks totally pissed off, I would have been, too....poor taste by Weatherford for posting it to social media, too.

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The context is a very large man picked up a much smaller man and dumped him in a tub and then said, "that n*gger aint gonna do shit to me. Fuck that n*gger."

 

If the guy is cool with it and laughs along with it, fine. This doesn't appear to be a good natured prank among friends.

 

There's going to be all kinds of different personalities in a locker room, and people don't have to like one another, but the least you can do is show respect to your fellow man. Just give thaf person basic respect. I don't think this was just joking around. I'm sure ot will all work out, but JPP needs to grow the fuck up.

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Not smart for a fucking guy to pick up another player and dump him into a fucking ice bath, and he literally flung him in. Fucking kid was hurt all last season, you want another corner not able to start the season again. This is Jets bullshit. I hope Coughlin comes down on him for that.

 

If for nothing so that we don't have to hear " we should have kept Aaron Ross" nonsense, because he wouldn't have let JPP do that.

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I wonder if it comes down to it and I hope this isnt the case, but you think Coughlin sits JPP for a game or two? Make him mature a little?

 

I didn't know what to think... this is not junior high anymore.. and to see grown ass men (canty in the video was cheering) acting like bad kinds in 9th grade is not something I want to associate with the Giants.. or the NFL in general. Prince SHOULD HAVE stood up for himself... and JPP was out of line.

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I didn't know what to think... this is not junior high anymore.. and to see grown ass men (canty in the video was cheering) acting like bad kinds in 9th grade is not something I want to associate with the Giants.. or the NFL in general. Prince SHOULD HAVE stood up for himself... and JPP was out of line.

 

Haha, I don't think there was any way Prince was climbing down off that tree, lol. JPP dwarfs him.

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Haha, I don't think there was any way Prince was climbing down off that tree, lol. JPP dwarfs him.

 

Yes there's... As a private in the Army I was subject to hazing.. the kid who tried pick me up was easily more than twice my weight.. I was barely 100 lbs and he was closer to 250. He couldn't... And even when others tried to help him I held on to furniture for dear life... they ended up just laughing at how they couldn't get me off the ground.. I earned my respect right there and then.. and was spared any form of hazing that other privates were subjected to.

 

Nonetheless that's not something I wanted to see posted online.

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The context is a very large man picked up a much smaller man and dumped him in a tub and then said, "that n*gger aint gonna do shit to me. Fuck that n*gger."

 

If the guy is cool with it and laughs along with it, fine. This doesn't appear to be a good natured prank among friends.

 

There's going to be all kinds of different personalities in a locker room, and people don't have to like one another, but the least you can do is show respect to your fellow man. Just give thaf person basic respect. I don't think this was just joking around. I'm sure ot will all work out, but JPP needs to grow the fuck up.

 

I highly doubt it's anything personal. I bet as Prince had no camp then immediately went on PUP with his foot that he missed out on most of the traditional rookie hazing. My guess is that the senor players remembered that while hazing this year's rookies and Prince was a being bitch about it.

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Yes there's... As a private in the Army I was subject to hazing.. the kid who tried pick me up was easily more than twice my weight.. I was barely 100 lbs and he was closer to 250. He couldn't... And even when others tried to help him I held on to furniture for dear life... they ended up just laughing at how they couldn't get me off the ground.. I earned my respect right there and then.. and was spared any form of hazing that other privates were subjected to.

 

Nonetheless that's not something I wanted to see posted online.

 

Yeah but Nas your the only non pro HoF athlete of any sport on the internet so you dont count.

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http://blogs.nfl.com/2012/08/20/why-that-cold-tub-video-with-the-giants-and-prince-amukamara-wasnt-funny-at-all/?module=HP11_content_stream

 

thumb_rapoport.jpg?m=1341372214g

Why that cold tub video with the Giants and Prince Amukamara wasn’t funny at all

 

Ian Rapoport | Tags: Giants, hazing, Prince Amukamara

prince-pic.jpg?w=300&h=259

Giants CB Prince Amukamara, in happier times (Associated Press)

I thought it would be funny. Figured it was a joke of some kind. I clicked on the video provided by Pro Football Talk of Giants veterans throwing second-year CB Prince Amukamara into the ice cold tub, and I waited for the comedy. None came.

In the explicit video (which you can watch if you can stand the language and embarrassing nature of it all), pass-rusher Jason Pierre-Paul is shown tossing Amukamara into a freezing cold tub while his teammates taunt and laugh. Apparently, this has happened before, many times. He estimated eight times last year, and he also had his clothes cut up.

No, Amukamara is not a rookie anymore, and this isn’t some sort of welcome-to-the-NFL deal (though even those sorts of tie-you-to-the-goalpost pranks should have gone out with leather helmets). This is a second-year player, a contributor, and the big kids are picking on him. It’s recess, and the Giants CB is the weaker kid getting his pants pulled down for everyone to laugh at.

It’s also sad. You can dress it up how you want, but that’s what it is. Maybe Amukamara did something to deserve it. Maybe he hasn’t shown the respect necessary to be in an NFL locker room (whatever that means). Maybe he hasn’t learned to be a pro. Maybe he mouths off to the veterans. Maybe it’s a Full Metal Jacket-type thing, where he’s hurt the unit. But this isn’t a life-and-death situation. And whatever he hasn’t learned, I don’t know that he’ll learn it by his eighth tumble in a bucket of ice.

What is the lesson they are trying to teach him? And is this the way to do it?

 

Amukamara spoke about it to the Star-Ledger’s Mike Garafolo, expressing dismay, concern, and most of all cluelessness. And just reading it, I hurt for him. Just look at his face in the video and you will, too.

What the former first-rounder pick said was, “I mean, I’m not a rookie anymore, so I don’t know why I’m getting thrown in the tub. I know it’s all love. … Yeah, no one ever likes it, especially when it’s you vs. eight and no one’s helping you. But it doesn’t mess up our team morale or anything.

Read that again. “It’s you vs. eight and no one’s helping you.” What part of team-building is that? How does humiliating a player in front of a nation — and uploading the video just to be sure we all see it — make the Giants a better team? How does it make them closer? How does it make Amukamara a better teammate or person? How is it any different from what doing something that your mom would’ve grounded you for?

I’ve been picked on. I’d gather that most of us have at some point. I remember the seniors stepping on me during football practice in high school, in an effort to teach me something or other. I’m sure I deserved it. I’m sure I was a little punk in their eyes. But it didn’t make me respect them. It made me feel sorry for them for going out of their way to embarrass a younger, weaker person.

It’s hazing, and it’s very far from being right. It’s bullying, just using a different word. And in the end, maybe this video will help spark a conversation that will help improve the landscape of it all. Punter Steve Weatherford has apologized for posting the vieo, which was nice. “The video I posted was distasteful,” he tweeted. “Our team is a family, and we love each other. I am sorry to the fans.”

Wish he would’ve said he was sorry to the player whose life he turned upside down, exposing him as a wimp . Coach Tom Coughlin, a good man, seemed perturbed by the whole thing. The episode does not seem like something he would endorse, though it was surprising that his anger was aimed at the fact that something from inside the locker room became “part of social media.” I’ll bet when he talks to those involved, he’ll realize it was the act that was the problem, not the leaking of it.

You can argue whether or not football players are role models, but the jig is up. They are. Like it or not, millions of children look to them. They should do better than beating up a weakling, who is apparently so numb to it that he gives up on fighting back. I’m sure I’m standing on some moral high-ground or whatever, but it’s not even really that high. I mean, do we still have to be told that beating up a person who can’t defend himself is wrong?

I get the other side of it. Boys will be boys. It’s a locker room. Teams have been making rookies earn their keep for years. OK. Why does that make it right? You think the Amukamara feels any better knowing similar younger players were tormented like he was? Imagine his parents watching that. Think they feel better?

And here’s the other thing: He’s going to play this year. A lot. And he’s a pretty good player, one his teammates will depend on. When the Giants got to have it, they’ll be staring at him in the huddle. I know he’s a pro, and I know he’s getting paid, and I know it’s his job… but why would he want to play for guys who do that to him? Maybe they’ll make it right. I hope they do.

I also hope the attention it has garnered will allow the Giants — and likely other teams — to really think about their actions. For the next weakling’s sake.

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Well, you know, they had his rookie year, and the postseason, for locker room hijinks. Perhaps you're right Tree, and maybe in my younger days, I would've laughed at it more, or agree with you... but to me it looked like Prince was the only adult in the room.

 

There's other ways to handle it than to let the moment's emotions take over. Personally, I'd rather this topic die as quickly as possible, and I'm sure Coughlin feel the same way. Not everyone is cut from the same cloth. And if there's a guy that isn't wanting to participate in that stuff, just let him be. I'm sure Prince will have his peace be heard with the parties involved.

 

Pranks are fun if the people being pranked enjoy them too, and will prank you back. Some people aren't down with that, and to them, if you don't just back the fuck off of them, it can be a hostile work environment. I just don't like it. Eli is a great prankster, and you can prank someone without manhandling. And that's Eli's way... a little purple dye in the helmet... that's a better way to get everyone laughing. I don't know, just seeing the look on Prince's face, and the couple of comments I've read from him after, he's not having fun with it and so it should stop. It's not about being a bitch, it's about basic respect and human dignity. I'm sure they'll work it out.

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Great column by Rapoport, I agree with him on most of it, except for calling Amukamara a wimp and a weakling... which I know he wasn't doing to be pejorative. I think he was just drawing the parallel to the school playground with that. In any case, walking away, as long as he addresses it later and shows pride in himself... can be the right thing to do.

 

I remember years ago Deion Sanders doused Tim McCarver with water in a TV segment McCarver was doing. McCarver sarcastically told Deion, "you are a REAL man, Deion."

 

By doing that, McCarver was the adult in the room, and exposed Deion for what he was at the time... a petty, childish, prima donna (some would argue that last part is still true). You can see the video here:

 

 

Maybe JPP was getting it pretty good in his rookie season, and he's enjoying being on the other side of it, now. But Prince is not a rookie anymore, and that should be that. This is the time you would like to see Justin Tuck step up and nip this in the bud... no more of this shit. Earn that "C" on your shoulder. Save the pranks for the rookies, but pranks should be cheeky and fun, not humiliating.

 

From the cinematic masterpiece that is Super Troopers:

 

Mac: But our shenanigans are cheeky and fun!

Thorny: [referring to Farva] Yeah, and his shenanigans are cruel and tragic.

Foster: [after a pause] Which... makes them not really shenanigans at all.

Mac: [in a silly voice] Evil shenanigans!

 

 

Exactly... JPP's shenanigans ARE cruel and tragic... which makes them not really shenanigans at all.

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