Antrel Rolle never is short on emotion and, with the instinct of a team captain and the passion of a preacher, he sounded pained on Tuesday by what has transpired this season, especially the way the Giants were non-competitive in their 38-0 loss to the Panthers in Carolina.
He promised to not hold back on anything to get the season turned around, making it seem as if he will take matters into his own hands, if need be.
“I’m going to tell you from this point on, I don’t care what the situation may be, I don’t care what the outcome is, I don’t care what the hell has to happen,’’ Rolle said on his weekly WFAN spot, “if they want to kick me up from around here, from the New York Giants, then that’s what’s going to have to happen. But I’m going to play Antrel Rolle ball the way I know how to play Antrel Rolle ball and I’m going to lead the way I know how to lead. That feeling that I felt last Sunday? I never had that feeling in my life and I can never feel that way again.’’
At a time when losing confidence in the 0-3 Giants is all the rage, Rolle rather than jump off the ship breathed life into the sails by stating he is more confident in his team now than he was back in training camp.
“We’ve been beat in the mouth and we got hit in the mouth extremely bad this Sunday,’’ Rolle said. “Hopefully that is exactly what we needed to wake our ass up and go out there and play football.’’
Rolle did not take umbrage hearing that former Giants linebacker Carl Banks ripped the team, saying the Giants don’t like each other enough to fight for each other and took the abuse from the Panthers with no hint of retaliation.
“I agree 200 percent when he says we’re not fighting for one another,’’ Rolle said. “Do we like each other in our locker room? I believe so. But are we going out there and fighting for the guy beside us? Absolutely not. There is no way I can hide it, sugarcoat it, whatever you want to say. Carolina came out there and they punched us in our mouth and we didn’t do anything. We’re still bleeding to this day.’’
While Victor Cruz went on ESPN radio on Tuesday and said, “We can absolutely make the playoffs,’’ Rolle did not go quite as far.
“Is it my goal? Absolutely,’’ Rolle said. “There’s 13 games left in the season. I wouldn’t mind going 13-3, if you ask me. These are all my brothers, I love each and every one of ’em and I have more confidence in ’em now than I ever had before because I know that we’re fighters and that’s what we do as Giants.
“Our fuel is based on people telling us what we can’t do. Let it fuel your fire. Let that be our motivation. Whatever it takes to go out there and get the job done on Sunday that’s what needs to take place.
“We will turn this around, believe that.’’
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The Giants signed OL Steven Baker and LB Ty Powell to their practice squad and terminated the contracts of DE Matt Broha and WR Marcus Harris.