Kadarius Toney apologizes to Giants reporters over ‘clowns’ comment

Shortly after a Thursday night game against the Washington Football Team in which he received just 19 snaps and zero touches, New York Giants wide receiver Kadarius Toney seemed to vent his frustration on social media.

“I don’t be mad, [expletive] just be lame to me. For real,” Toney wrote on Instagram.

Despite his comments and exchange with head coach Joe Judge during the 30-29 loss, his Instagram post apparently had nothing to do with football.

“I have spoken to KT and I’d say the one thing about that is the initial tweet or whatever it is, social media thing – the initial whatever it was had absolutely nothing to do with the New York Giants, National Football League or football in general,” Judge told reporters this week.

But Toney also lashed out at Giants reporters around the same time, calling them “clowns.”

On Thursday, as he took the podium at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center, Toney offered an unprompted apology to members of the media — all except one or two.

“Before I get started, I want to address the elephant in the room with social media. I know a lot of stuff was misinterpreted [over] me talking about the Giants or whatever. It had nothing to do with the Giants,” Toney said. “I know a lot of people saw what I posted, like media wise, me saying the media this and that. That’s not meant for everybody. The ones, they specifically know who I’m talking about because of the story that they want to make, want to create, stuff like that, they know exactly who I’m talking about. I apologize to the rest of you all who do a great job in what you all do. I’m going to leave it at that.

“I don’t want you guys to get offended by me calling you ‘clowns’ because it’s not everybody that I was referring to. It was only the few people that really try to create a mess or create a whole scene about what I posted, even though I normally post anyway on Instagram. It could be seen by a million people, but as soon as I post it at a certain time or whatever, you all feel like it’s uncomfortable then it’s this and that, that I’m talking about the Giants – which I never referred to the Giants or anything like that.”

Toney claimed the initial tweet was the result of a personal matter and that it was just coincidentally timed with his earlier exchange with Judge.

“It’s really a personal issue. It’s a personal matter I don’t really want to address it like that. That’s why I left it at what it was,” Toney said.

Despite his apology, the edgy Toney still seemed to take some issue with the media as a whole.

“What [have] I learned? I really learned that it’s really your job to create whatever you’re all going to create or out of whatever you all want it to be. From my standpoint, I’m just going to go back to what I normally used to do and not post at all to give you nothing to really talk about,” Toney said.

Smart.

Outside of the social media issues, Toney insists he’s happy with his role and simply focused on preparing for the Atlanta Falcons.

“I feel pretty good where I’m at,” Toney said. “I mean everyday I wake up with football on my mind. I don’t really know what to tell you. If you all don’t see the progression or whatever coming along by now, I guess you all won’t ever see it.

“I wake up every day, come in, do my job, do what I can every day to increase my role, increase my ability every day. I don’t really need justification from everybody about what I’m doing because I understand what’s going on.”

Toney is very aware of what’s written about him, by whom and when. That could be a good thing or a bad thing in New York — some athletes have handled it better than others over the years.

If and when Toney does see an increased role, none of it will matter if he produces. If things continue at this same pace however, well… that may be a different story.