Antrel Rolle calls out injured teammates for missing practice

Antrel Rolle is tired of looking over at the sidelines during practice and seeing far too many of his teammates.

Some of them need to toughen up, the safety said, and start fighting through their injuries to get back on the field.

Rolle didn’t call out any of his teammates by name after the Giants’ 23-10 loss to the Redskins on Sunday, but it wasn’t hard to find his intended target. Only two players barely practiced last week and still played on Sunday: RB Ahmad Bradshaw and DE Justin Tuck.

“I’m not calling anyone out. It’s not about individuals,” Rolle said. “What I’m saying is this – and quote me on this – if you’re going to play Sunday . . . granted, some injuries you can’t practice through, I understand that. But little nicks and bruises? If you can push through it, push through it because your team needs you.”

There were nine players on the Giants’ injury report last week and five of them didn’t play in the game. LB Spencer Paysinger and S Kenny Phillips practiced every day on a limited basis. Only Bradshaw and Tuck sat out Wednesday and Thursday before a limited practice on Friday.

Rolle only mentioned either player once – when he said Tuck “had a pretty positive game” and “went out there and fought each and every play.” Rolle instead kept his attack broad and insisted, “I don’t even know who doesn’t practice half of the time.”

Still, he was clearly questioning someone’s toughness, and indicated more needed to be done to get those injured players back on the field.

“If you’re going to go out here and play the game on Sunday, you need to be out there with your men throughout the week,” Rolle said. “I’ve been nicked up all year long. A lot of other people have been nicked up all year long. We go out there and we’re fighting.

“I don’t know. I ain’t the coach, man. I’m not trying to be the coach and I’m not trying to say what he should do or shouldn’t do. But I feel as teammates we need to hold each other more accountable. If you’re going to be in the battle come Sunday, let’s be in the battle throughout the week. That’s only going to make us better.”

Tuck didn’t have a strong reaction either way to Rolle’s rant. He even admitted that “when I was young I used to look at some of the older guys when they missed practice, and kind of give them a little look like, ‘They should probably be out here.’ ”

“I don’t know,” Tuck added. “The one thing I understand is no one knows your body better than you do. I would hope — and I do believe that — everyone on this football team, when they’re able to go out and help this football team, they do it.

“I always say that it’s easy to be tough when you’re doing it with somebody else’s body.”


(nydailynews.com)