Eli Manning of the New York Giants (Getty Images)
C.C. Brown still is no fan of Eli Manning — or Giants management or fans, for that matter.
Brown, the mouthy former Giants safety who created a stir last week by saying Manning was “erratic,” didn’t back down from that yesterday and even escalated the criticism after his Lions lost, 28-20, at New Meadowlands Stadium.
Speaking exclusively to The Post, Brown fired away when asked if he stood by his critique after Manning threw for 177 yards and two touchdowns — with no interceptions — to help deliver Detroit its 24th consecutive road loss.
“I was just calling a spade a spade,” Brown said.
And if that fired up Manning, Brown didn’t mind.
“I don’t care if I gave him motivation,” he said. “I just spoke the truth. Today, we gave him [Manning] plays. I mean, we gave
’em to him. He made some plays, but we also gave him some plays.”
Brown didn’t stop there, even though he already is on his third team in just six NFL seasons while Manning owns a Super Bowl ring that the quarterback did much to make happen.
“He’s a good quarterback, but you just don’t know how he’s going to play from one play to the next, one game to the next,” Brown said of Manning, who had spiffy 104.4 passer rating yesterday. “That’s going to hurt you as a team when you don’t know how your quarterback is going to play.”
Brown, repeatedly caught out of position in coverage last season in his only year with the Giants, is still angry about what he considers the scapegoat label for Big Blue’s 2009 defensive collapse.
The Giants released Brown in the offseason, and he continues to carry a grudge against coach Tom Coughlin and the front office because of that.
“They screwed me over here, and they know they did,” Brown told The Post. “Anytime they want to come back and apologize for it, that’s good — because they know they screwed me over. That was my biggest motivation. I was going to prove them wrong [yesterday].”
If that was the case, then it was hardly mission accomplished. Brown had seven tackles and broke up a pass, but the Giants ran practically at will while the supposedly erratic Manning completed 20 of his 30 passes.
Mindful of both his performance last season and his anti-Manning comments earlier in the week, the crowd also lustily booed Brown during the first half.
Like a villain out of pro wrestling, Brown said he couldn’t get enough of the catcalls.
“The boos didn’t do [bleep] but motivate me to go hit somebody even harder and make more plays,” he said. “I actually enjoyed it. When they stopped booing, I got mad.”
But in the end, Manning and the Giants got even.