Giants Country

New York Giants Leonard Williams Doesn't Like to Hear Booing

Giants defensive lineman Leonard Williams admits that he doesn't like it when Giants fans boo the team.

Patricia Traina

Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

Oh boo hoo!

New York Giants defensive lineman Leonard Williams understands that he and his teammates haven’t exactly been holding up their end of the bargain when it comes to the product they’re putting out there on the field.

He also understands that people have a right to express their unhappiness when they're not getting the quality they've paid.

But if Giants fans are going to be vocal in their displeasure over a giants team that fell to 1-5 following an embarrassing 38-11 loss to the Los Angeles Rams Sunday at MetLife Stadium, Williams would rather fans chose another way to express themselves than to boo the players.

“They do bother me, honestly,” Williams said of how the fans choose to express their frustrations at the Giants’ ineptness of late.

“Obviously, we’re in our own home stadium, I don’t want to be hearing boos from our own fans. I understand they have a right to be upset, as well, because they’re coming to see us put good football on the field, and we haven’t been winning. At the same time, I don’t like that.”

If Williams is trying to get sympathy from a fan base that hasn’t seen a playoff team since 2016 or quality football consistently since he's been a Giant, for that matter, he’s barking up the wrong tree.  

What Williams fails to understand is that this Giants team has offered very few signs of climbing out of what's mostly been a decade of losing football--some of it unbearable to watch, at times. 

Week in and week out, it's the same story. The Giants shoot themselves in the foot, they don't execute, they rack up injuries, the coaching is questionable--the list goes on and on.

Williams, his teammates, and coaches, for that matter, continue to praise each other for coming to work, for how they work, and the effort they put in--all factors that he feels shouldn't be booed.  

“I don’t think anyone deserves to be put down,” Williams said. “Whoever they are. I’m not going to go up to a salesman and tell him he’s not a good person, or boo this person because he’s not doing his job, or something like that.”

Ah, but that's where Williams doesn't get it. The great Bill Parcells once said there are no medals for trying, and while the Giants might fancy themselves winners every week in their preparation, so long as that continues to fail to translate into wins, fans are going to boo.

Oh, and in the real world, when someone is terrible at their job, it doesn't matter how hard they work or how nice they are. Businesses wait for no one, and if someone is not performing, they are replaced. 

And by the way, paying customers have a right to express their dissatisfaction in a civilized manner.  

If Williams or any of his teammates don't like it, then maybe they should do something about it, like start winning games that are winnable and stop getting blown out in embarrassing losses.  

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Patricia Traina
PATRICIA TRAINA

Patricia Traina has covered the New York Giants for 30+ seasons, and her work has appeared in multiple media outlets, including The Athletic, Forbes, Bleacher Report, and the Sports Illustrated media group. As a credentialed New York Giants press corps member, Patricia has also covered five Super Bowls (three featuring the Giants), the annual NFL draft, and the NFL Scouting Combine. She is the author of The Big 50: The Men and Moments that Made the New York Giants. In addition to her work with New York Giants On SI, Patricia hosts the Locked On Giants podcast. Patricia is also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and the Football Writers Association of America.

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