Malik Nabers is not happy with how FOX covered him on Sunday, and he made sure everyone knew it. After the Giants beat the Eagles 19-11, he went to his Instagram story to answer the broadcast team, with Greg Olsen in particular getting the brunt of it.
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“Y’all be trying to create a narrative on me so bad it’s actually crazy!! If you don’t like the way I play the game, keep the camera off me!! SIMPLE! But @gregolsen88 calling me a bad teammate when every team I’ve been on, there’s NOBODY I’ve played with has said dat bout me is crazy! My face is the same way if I’m havin a good game, bad, winning or losing. if it’s a problem. 1. Keep the camera off me. 2. Pray bout it! Simple,” Malik Nabers posted on his Instagram story, as posted by NFL insider Ari Meirov.
To understand where that came from, you have to go back to the broadcast. Nabers was frustrated during the game, that much was clear. But Olsen addressed the WR’s body language after he didn’t celebrate with his teammates following a touchdown late in the third quarter.
“There is a very fine line between being demanding, being a competitor, and all those great things. That’s great,” Olsen said on the FOX broadcast. “It just can never cross that it feels like it takes away from the success of your teammate. So when your teammate catches a wide-open touchdown, you need to be the happiest guy on the field.”
The numbers help explain why the afternoon felt so sour. Nabers finished with five catches on eight targets for 43 yards, averaging 8.6 yards per catch. His longest was 22 yards; he did not score, and the dropped touchdown in the fourth quarter stung the most.
It would have given the Giants a comfortable 20-8 lead over the Eagles.
Nabers was asked about the broadcast capturing the frustration, and how the game went up and down for them. The WR simply wanted the rest of the offense to lock in.
“Like I said, we got to be able to offense to play a four-quarter game,” he said after the game. “I mean, we can’t come out slow in the first quarter, second quarter, and only be able to put up six points. I felt like we were just lackadaisical out there, just playing, letting the game come. And I feel like in a division game, you have to go attack people, you have to go attack the game. And I felt like we were just lollygagging our way on through the game, so I had frustration about that, trying to wake everybody up, just to make sure, you know, we’re playing a game right now. It’s not time to play [around].
The Giants still got the win, which is the part that matters most in the standings. But the argument between Nabers and the FOX crew is now very public, and it is hard to say how long it will keep going.