Giants refute Stephen. A Smith claim after Daniel Jones, ESPN drama

Stephen A. Smith’s rant about the Giants last week went pretty viral, but was based on a falsehood.
Smith claimed that the Giants reached out to ESPN to complain about Elle Duncan’s segment on Daniel Jones on Thursday. Senior vice president of communications Pat Hanlon, who stoked the flames with a tweet about Duncan’s comments, said that no one from the Giants made an actual phone call.
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Despite what Smith said in his rampage, no one reached out to complain to the network.
All the dram circulated around the release of Jones, which came on Friday, one day after he delivered a farewell to reporters at practice. Giants fans have seen it all throughout the news this weekend, but here’s a refresher:
Here’s what Duncan said about Jones’ speech:
“I‘m sorry, you have to write this down? Didn’t you go to Duke?
“You guys think he had this saved in his notes since like 2020 In all seriousness, DJ, I could have saved you like 90 seconds. A rewrite: I’m sorry you paid me $108 million for one playoff win. And I look forward to reviving my career as Brock Purdy’s backup. The end.”
Here’s what Smith said on ESPN on Friday:
“The New York Giants, respectfully, shut the hell up. Y’all are awful as an organization. You won a Super Bowl in 2007, you won a Super Bowl in 2011, outside of that, since 2011, that’s 13 years, the Giants have made the playoffs twice. They’ve won one playoff game.
“And you’ve got the nerve to sit up there and call the offices and complain to executives about somebody that went on national television to do their job. Why don’t you do your damn job as an organization?”
And here’s what Hanlon posted on X in response to Duncan’s segment:
That an #ESPN personality would mock Daniel Jones’ statement today is mind boggling. Given what has happened at that company over past few years, tone deaf.
(NJ Advance Media’s Darryl Slater contributed to this report.)
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Bridget Hyland may be reached at [email protected].