How Giants Fans Should Feel About Xavier McKinney Breaking His Hand During The Bye Week

The New York Giants are 6-2 looking to come off their bye week and keep the miracle season alive. Unfortunately, their star safety and defensive captain Xavier McKinney didn’t make it out of the bye week unscathed.

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— Xavier McKinney (@mckinney15__) November 7, 2022

McKinney says he was on a guided sightseeing tour when he flipped his ATV over and smashed his hand up. He is now on the reserve/non-football injury list so he’ll miss at least 4 games minimum. Shit.

It’s easy to immediately be pissed at McKinney for being so wreckless during the bye week, especially considering how this Giants season is shaking out. This team could crater to the bottom of the division or continue sneaking wins. The margin of error is paper thin.

I have a really hard time getting angry at professional athletes who eat, sleep and breathe their sport 24/7 going out there and enjoying the fruits of their labor. Whether you’re an NFL safety, a Walmart cashier or a forklift driver, if you’re busting your ass at work every single day, when do you get to actually enjoy life?

Yes, it would feel better if Xavier McKinney broke his hand in the offseason but we all know fans would still hate him and call him selfish and dumb for not spending his vacation inside of a dark room watching Philadelphia Eagles film while doing dumbbell curls.

It sucks that he broke his hand. He’s also probably lying about going on some supervised ATV tour and was most likely fucking around and flipped the bike over being an idiot. But I don’t think that says anything about the type of person he is and at the end of the day, it was an accident.

It’s nowhere near the same as when Kyle Lauletta crashed his car attempting to dodge a cop car at 8am when he was clearly drunk from the night before. Obviously, Giants fans cared less because he was a backup and every time he stepped onto the field he threw the ball directly into the chest of an opposing linebacker.

We shouldn’t expect players to sit in their homes or the gym or the practice facility all the time. We can hope they aren’t out here speeding on motorcycles or ya know, crashing ATVs but NFL players have done faaaaar worse shit on their off days.

Antonio Brown is beating off in a public pool as you read this. At least McKinney is only 23 and has learned a valuable lesson. He only injured himself and that sucks but his hand will heal.

I also think the Giants will be fine.

Yes, Mckinney has played every defensive snap and he was responsible for the play-calling on the field but this Giants team is different, man. They are manufacturing players out of thin air. I’ve talked a lot of shit about Landon Collins over the years but he’s back on this team and he’s more than capable of replacing McKinney.

Let’s just be glad Xavier McKinney didn’t pull a Jason Pierre-Paul and straight up lose his fingers playing with fireworks like a teenager from a small town where the most fun thing a kid can do on the weekends is stealing their parent’s alcohol and smashing the empty bottles against the local grocery store wall after they close.