In the subsequent stages of the NFC East showdown, there seemed to be a angst between wide receivers Darius Slayton and Sterling Shepard. Slayton was seen gripping Shepard’s shoulder pads during their conversation, shaking his head as he walked away. Meanwhile, Shepard continued to voice his thoughts while trailing Slayton on the sidelines, CBS Sports noted.
Following the Giants’ 49-17 loss on Sunday, head coach Daboll played down the sideline exchange, adopting a similar approach to his response to every other question during the press conference.
“Yeah, Slayton and Shep, they weren’t getting into it. Little stuff during the game. Not a big deal,” Daboll said. “I’ve talked to all those guys. Not the results we want, but get back to work.”
Shepard was over the sideline exchange, too, as both players indicated it was just a heat-of-the-moment thing.
“Man, Listen. That is my brother like my mother’s kids,” Shepard said, “It was never that, never that, it was straight me motivating him to go out there and go do it. Like, that’s the honest truth.
“Just trying to motivate him and keep him going. It’s frustrating, obviously, look at the scoreboard and how the game went down. It’s frustrating, but I was just trying to motivate him to keep on going and fighting through it really.”
Slayton said he reacted the same way after his emotions were calmed.
“I got a little frustrated. Emotions got the best of me a little bit,” Slayton said. “Obviously, I don’t know what the camera saw or caught or whatever, but when I was speaking to [Shepard] it was that, he was just trying to calm me down, encourage me, and I’m grateful to have him as a teammate.”
What about the discussion with Groh? Slayton said it was a “spirited conversation.”
“Of course, my frustration is always going to come from the team’s success,” Slayton said, per CBS Sports. “Like my individual success, obviously everybody wants to go out there and have a bazillion yards and fifty touchdowns, and that’s great and fine, but I think at that point in the game, I think we were down 28-7 if I’m not mistaken so obviously the game had not gone the way we wanted it to go and obviously that was frustrating in itself,” he said.
“I just have to manage my emotions better in those scenarios.”
The Giants are done for this season, most likely, but we’ll see how far the ‘Boys can go. And there’s always next year for the rebuilding G-men.