Competing in New York imposes significant pressure on athletes, often presenting a formidable challenge. This pressure intensifies when a team is struggling, as has been the case for the New York Giants over the past decade-plus.
Even superstar players sometimes grow tired of it all, and they lose their love of the sport.
Such was the case for wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. back in 2016, when the Giants fell to the Minnesota Vikings, 24-10, on Monday Night Football.
“Football is my sanctuary,” Beckham told ESPN Radio at the time. “It’s where I go to escape. It’s where I’m most happy. I’m not having fun anymore.
“What I’m communicating, we’re not doing. I’m not getting the opportunities to contribute, and that’s frustrating to me.”
Giants football also briefly ruined the game for tight end Darren Waller, who decided on retirement during the first half of a 2023 game against the Buffalo Bills.
“I knew I was retiring when we played in Buffalo,” Waller said on The Side You Don’t See podcast. “It was a game where it was really controversial because one of the guys held me at the end, and they didn’t call it.
“It was in the first quarter of the game. We were running this counter lead running play, and I’m kind of like leading through the hole like I’m a fullback, and the play is working. But I sit down on the sideline after like a drive where we ran like three times and I’m like, what the (expletive) am I doing with my life? I’m out here playing fullback. I don’t even want to do this (expletive) anymore.”
Waller unretired this offseason and was traded to the Miami Dolphins, where he is thriving and has fallen back in love with the game of football.
Are you noticing a trend? It’s one that also nearly killed the love of football for quarterback Daniel Jones, who recently opened up about his time in New York and subsequent departure.
“A lot of things are simpler here in Indy,” Jones said on the Fitz & Whit Podcast. “The city has been great, too. People are nice.”
That’s a far cry from what Jones experienced in New York.
“I don’t know if I can say I ever hated the game, but those drives back from the stadium on Sunday after you lost,” Jones said, “and you’re driving through traffic… Yeah, those are tough and make you think about a lot of things.
“At the end of that time in New York, and kind of how it ended, it was tough. You go through a lot.”
Jones added, “I don’t know if I ever hated it, but it was like, ‘man, this is real tough.'”
After landing with the Minnesota Vikings, Jones gained back anything he had lost in New York. He had an opportunity to learn from an entirely new coaching staff, praising Kevin O’Connell for his near-obsessive attention to detail. He learned a better approach during that brief time and has used it to find success with the Indianapolis Colts.
Through five weeks, the Colts are tied for the best record in the NFL (4-1) and have the highest-scoring offense in the AFC. Jones is top five in nearly every statistical category, and above all else, he’s completely fallen back in love with the game of football.
The Giants, meanwhile, are 1-4 and likely headed toward another regime change.
