Brandon Marshall will add a veteran presence to the New York Giants’ locker room next season, and the star wide receiver believes it is one the team could have used before the playoffs last year.
Prior to their 38-13 blowout loss against the Green Bay Packers in the postseason, the Giants’ receiving corps was criticized for spending time partying on a boat in Miami rather than preparing for the biggest game of the year. In an appearance on NFL Network Thursday morning, Marshall was asked if the Miami trip would have happened with his teammates.
“You know what? No, it doesn’t happen,” he said, per Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News. “Well, I can’t say that. Everyone is different. But I would have been against that, and partly because of my pains, right? I’ve been in the league so long and I’ve never made the playoffs. so for me, I’m a guy … I’m in year 11 (in that scenario), and I’m all-in, because I know this opportunity doesn’t come around often. But then you have younger guys.”
Marshall added that he understands the mentality of a younger player is a lot different from that of a 33-year-old veteran.
“So these guys are young, and they’re studs and they’ll get it,” he said. “But for me, I’m just at a different place in my life, so I would have been against it. But I don’t think it had anything to do with their performance on Sunday.”
Whether the boat trip had an effect on the outcome of the playoff game or not, both Odell Beckham Jr. and Victor Cruz expressed regret over it. You can read what Cruz had to say after the fact here.
If the Giants are fortunate enough to make it to the postseason again in 2017, you can bet there will be no partying in Miami beach leading up to the game.
