Two New York Giants players told ESPN's Josina Anderson that head coach Ben McAdoo no longer has the support of his 1-7 team.
"McAdoo has lost this team," one player who asked to remain anonymous told Anderson. "He's got us going 80 percent on Saturdays before we get on a plane to play a game. It's wild. Changed our off day. He's dishing out fines like crazy. Suspended two of our stars when we need them the most. Throws us under the bus all the time. He's ran us into the ground and people wonder why we've been getting got."
A second player who also requested anonymity told Anderson: "Guys are giving up on the season and nothing's being done. Guys just don't care anymore."
Those comments from both players came last week, before the Giants lost 51-17 to the Los Angeles Rams at MetLife Stadium in one of the worst home losses in the team's history.
On Wednesday, the two players reiterated the comments, with one saying the coach "didn't really have anything for us" at halftime of that game, and the other saying, "I feel like we really don't got a leader in Coach McAdoo."
On Wednesday, Giants safety Landon Collins disputed the notion that McAdoo had lost the team.
"McAdoo has been leading the same way he led last year. So, I don't knock the way he has been doing things," Collins said. "Fining people like crazy? If you don't follow the rules, you get in trouble because you got to pay the consequences. I wouldn't say he lost the team. I have the utmost respect for him. He's been doing a great job. Just trying to figure it out like we all are.
"McAdoo has it all. He can lead men. He can do whatever you say. He has the ability to do those things. It's not McAdoo ... it's everybody. Everybody has to look in the mirror -- the coaching staff, the coordinators, the players, everybody."
Giants cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who was suspended by McAdoo on Oct. 11 after a sideline altercation, agreed with Collins that McAdoo hadn't lost the team. He also said that the players needed to look at themselves.
"I'm an old head. I seen a lot of locker rooms, and I know for a fact this locker room ain't lost. I seen a lost locker room. I know what guys do," Rodgers-Cromartie said. "They come to practice lackadaisical. They don't have a care. Nothing really matters no more. And I don't see that happening.
"I'll say that we are still trying to find our identity -- who we want to be. ... At times, we show the team that we know we are, and at times, we don't; and we got to figure out why is that."
One of the two anonymous Giants players said Wednesday that he thinks the organization is still in the midst of being at rock bottom.
"I would say this last week [against the Rams], even after the game, a lot of guys were like at their wit's end," the player said. "You could tell even on the sidelines. I just got the vibe; you can tell when the team has quit, and it just felt like we did. It felt like nobody wanted to be there, and the whole week [McAdoo] didn't give us the day off last week [after players returned from the team's bye]. Guys were a little upset about that -- even though we did get a bye week -- so the morale was kind of shaky."
The player also said that some players did not like that McAdoo characterized the drubbing by the Rams as one of the Giants' worst losses in history.
"I think a lot of the guys watched the press conference after the game like a lot of guys do just to see what [McAdoo] says," the player said. "When [McAdoo] said 'um' to the question 'What did you tell the team at halftime?' and [McAdoo] just said 'um,' he didn't really have anything. Man, he didn't really have anything for us when we came back in the locker room, too. It was just kind of like the same old, same old. You can just see guys were like -- you can just tell that nobody was kind of following it."
The other anonymous player also said Wednesday: "I'm going to keep it 100 and I'm going to tell it like it is, and it's terrible, man. I feel like we really don't got a leader in Coach McAdoo. Going from Coach [Tom] Coughlin, a leader who just had that presence. Like if you were doing something wrong, like on the phone in the hallway walking by, like [Coughlin] is going to say something to you. Coach McAdoo, on the other hand, would see you on the phone in the hallway, walk by you and then fine you."
Rodgers-Cromartie is taking the view of a player who has been through a lot.
"At the end of the day, we have eight more games to get it right. [The game against the Rams] was terrible. I ain't never seen nothing like that in my life. In that game, you had people running wide open. Ain't no way in hell anybody expected us to come off a bye and play like that."
"But I'm telling you, [McAdoo] has our support," Rodgers-Cromartie added. "It's just been a tough season. It is what it is.
"It's everybody's fault. It's not just one person to blame. Can't just blame Coach McAdoo. Can't blame [general manager] Mr. [Jerry] Reese. Can't blame the offensive staff. It's everybody."