NFL

Giants, Jets players talk ‘overboard’ Twitter abuse

Trash talk on the field is one thing. But when so-called fans use Twitter to threaten pro athletes, it takes personal fouls to a whole new level.

Giants running back Brandon Jacobs isn’t the only NFL star who has taken a vicious shot from social media twits. Other Giants and Jets players have taken blind-side hits from cyber punks.

WILLIE COLON

“Follow my tweets from when that ‘I hate the Patriots’ thing came out. I had somebody say, ‘ I’d rather have colon cancer than to have Colon on my team,’ or some other guy was tweeting me horrible stuff. But that’s the world we live in. We get people who just … they take it to that level. For an athlete to have his opinion, or express how he feels, we got shot at so to speak verbally. … It’s tough. … You ignore it.”

Colon was informed a fantasy football fan threatened Brandon Jacobs.

“Sometimes sports is an avenue for these kids to kind of get their frustrations out, which is fine. Social media opened that door, and we have to be careful what we say, how we go about things, and if we do come out and say stuff, we have to be able to back it up. Sometimes fans don’t like it, and it is what it is.”

Colon was asked whether his former Steelers teammates had to deal with this.

“When I was in Pittsburgh, I watched Ben [Roethlisberger] go through it when he was going through his whole ordeal [2010 sex assault scandal]. … It’s sad, but it’s the reality where we’re at. It’s one of them things where, as an athlete, you got to watch ourselves personally, but also watch what’s going on around us.”

SHELDON RICHARDSON

“Sometimes they get overboard, like a couple of Patriot fans told me they hope I tear my knee or something like that. … I laugh about it.”

QUINTON COPLES

“I’m not that active. If somebody says something crazy to me, I take it with a grain of salt and move forward. I don’t get caught up in threats and all that stuff. … They talk bad about you. They say whatever they want to say about you. At the end of the day, as a professional you’re not supposed to respond. You just let that go.”

MO WILKERSON

“I think everybody gets that stuff. I don’t pay it no mind. My rookie year I used to pay mind to it and [retweet it] or stay stuff back. I feel like I matured quickly and anybody who tweets me negative stuff now I just block them or mute them. … You just have to let the people know. The NFL has to take care of that.”

PRINCE AMUKAMARA

“No threats, but I’ve definitely been attacked [on Twitter]. One I’ll never forget is when I got beat deep against the Cowboys. It was my rookie year. [Somebody] said, ‘Oh, so you can catch lions and tigers, but you can’t catch a receiver?’ ”

TERRELL THOMAS

“[It’s] pretty bad, man. People talk about my knees, nothing about my daughter or family. I never got a threat that they were going to, like, kill me or anything, but I definitely got some bad comments about me playing football.”

“A guy like Matt Schaub, he had people at his house. I would have come out with a bat, especially in Houston, he can own a gun out there, he has a right to protect his family. You never know these days how much these fans take this game too seriously.”

RYAN MUNDY

“They need to step into real life. I understand fantasy is a big deal nowadays. This is our livelihood, and it’s not fantasy for us. This is the way for us to live out our dreams and provide for our families.”

JONATHAN HANKINS

“You can’t really do too much about it, because it’s just words. … You can always respond to it, but it wouldn’t be a good thing to do.”