Love the trade down, and Toney looks like a human highlight reel. He'll add a lot to the offense.
However, given past experiences with Plax and DeAndre Baker, I'm not so thrilled about this tidbit from Duggan today:
(Toney) was suspended for the 2018 season opener after he was among a group of Florida players involved in a confrontation with Gainesville locals where he painted an air-soft gun to look like an AR-15 assault rifle. A few months later, he was pulled over and an authentic AR-15 rifle was found loaded in his back seat. He said the gun was for protection from the locals and he wasn’t charged for violating the state’s open-carry law because the gun was in the back seat.
Chris Petit went on to say:
We spent time with him in person to get to know the person there and that continues. Then our security staff goes through every check that we do on every player. Listen, if there was a concern with him, he wouldn’t have been on our board.
One would hope, but DeAndre Baker was on your board not long ago.
I don't care whether your pro or anti gun, I think it's fair to say NFL Players and guns are NEVER a GOOD mix. Just like they tell the rookies at the symposium, nothing good ever happens at 3am. It's also true that nothing good ever happens with NFL players and guns. There are zero positive outcomes.
Maybe the Giants should have Plax to talk to the kid and explain in gory detail that NY's gun laws are VERY different to Florida's.
Hopefully, he's matured and is a good citizen here with the Giants. He is an interesting player.
He lawfully owned an AR. He didn’t do anything wrong.
Personally not even thinking about it.
This really requires the peeling back of another layer... what was Toney doing and where was he going that he felt so threatened?
Mullen would have told Judge if is Toney was a problem the past 2 years.
The AR-15 event was 3 years ago. It's concerning, but 18 year olds make stupid mistakes. The good news is this one was prevented before causing anyone harm.
Certainly something to keep an eye on, but I am hopeful that Judge and his team of former SEC coaches had good enough contacts to know the whole story of Toney.
Paper route? Maybe him and the other members of Delta House were able to cash in on their homecoming parade caper by convincing Dean Wormer it was easier to bribe them than the local Mayor
"He has released two albums under his rap moniker Yung Joka." Maybe made some $
yea? so?
This really requires the peeling back of another layer... what was Toney doing and where was he going that he felt so threatened?
As a gun owner yourself and a self-proclaimed gun nut - if it's legal to own and carry the gun in Florida, why is it anyone's business what he's doing with it? Maybe target shooting? Protection? Hunting?
This is thread should probably be deleted.
Quote:
An AR-15 can cost anywhere from 600-1200 depending on specs. Where does an 18 year full time student find that kind of money?
"He has released two albums under his rap moniker Yung Joka." Maybe made some $
Those albums came out after the incident.
Quote: An AR-15 can cost anywhere from 600-1200 depending on specs. Where does an 18 year full time student find that kind of money?
"He has released two albums under his rap moniker Yung Joka." Maybe made some $
Yung Joka
Musical artist
Available on
YouTube
Spotify
YouTube Music
Apple Music
iHeartRadio
Deezer
It's also not a matter of Toney's actions being legal in Florida, or even in NY. It's not the legality of the issue I find worrisome.
If he's a gun guy, and he keeps a (legally-registered [/i]in NY please[/i] -- not just FL) gun locked in a gun safe in his house and takes it to a range occasionally, FINE.
What I find worrisome is that 20 year-old, suddenly-rich rookies don't have a history of making the smartest life decisions. And when guns are involved, it never ends well.
Doesn't meany anything IS going to happen with Toney, but the potential is there.
So forgive me if I'd prefer the Giants rookies (AND veterans) to NOT be "gun guys." I'd also prefer they not be helmet-less motorcycle drivers, sky divers, free climbers, etc.
Doesn't mean I'm going to get my way about any of it.
No one can predict the future, and at the end of the day you gotta trust the coaches to have a good relationship and handle on their players.
I say this is a new slate - no point in living in the past. I trust they did their homework and we will have no issues with Toney going forward.
Thought Coughlin ran a tight ship. But apparently he didn't EXPRESSLY forbid taking an unregistered (in NY) gun to a nightclub, or say: "and for fuck's sake, if you're going to do that, don't put it in your sweat pants and shoot yourself in the leg."
ar·se·nal
/ˈärs(ə)n(ə)l/
noun
a collection of weapons and military equipment stored by a country, person, or group.
It's also not a matter of Toney's actions being legal in Florida, or even in NY. It's not the legality of the issue I find worrisome.
If he's a gun guy, and he keeps a (legally-registered [/i]in NY please[/i] -- not just FL) gun locked in a gun safe in his house and takes it to a range occasionally, FINE.
What I find worrisome is that 20 year-old, suddenly-rich rookies don't have a history of making the smartest life decisions. And when guns are involved, it never ends well.
Doesn't meany anything IS going to happen with Toney, but the potential is there.
So forgive me if I'd prefer the Giants rookies (AND veterans) to NOT be "gun guys." I'd also prefer they not be helmet-less motorcycle drivers, sky divers, free climbers, etc.
Doesn't mean I'm going to get my way about any of it.
Plenty of 20 year old, suddenly rich rookies make stupid decisions without guns (like boat trips before a playoff game).
I would personally never own a gun, but owning a legal gun doesn't increase your odds of doing something stupid. It just makes the consequences of the stupidity worse.
I hope he's nothing like Meggett.
Eh, likely means Jenkins was on thin ice beforehand. And I'd wager if Baker had come in and worked hard while looking OK on the field, the Giants would've stuck with him longer. But by most accounts, his work ethic was already turning off the new staff.
Good point. And I think it was pretty arrogant for them to say: If there was a concern with him, he wouldn’t have been on our board.
With the Baker fiasco SO fresh in everyone's memory. I'm not saying they could have foreseen the Baker incident, but they could maybe show a little more humility after it.
I would have preferred something more like:
We do our best to vet everything, and sometimes things still happen. In Toney's case, we're aware of the gun incidents, and we're taking steps to ensure he thoroughly understands NY gun laws, and what we expect of him in this regard as NY Giant.
That would have been more assuring.
Regardless, how they say it doesn't really matter but only if it sinks in.
I do have laugh how we Giants fans will look the other way when it's one of our guys. We've had a lot of shady characters play for this team.
I say this is a new slate - no point in living in the past. I trust they did their homework and we will have no issues with Toney going forward.
It was August 2018, so 2.5 years ago. Also, the gun was loaded. And in another city he might have been charged. The cops discussed whether to charge him. The law here is very vague. This is what the Tampa Bay Times reported:
"Police said Toney's weapon was in the backseat, not concealed. But officers questioned whether the weapon was "on or about" him, which would have violated the state's open-carry law. They decided it was not, because it was in the backseat rather than, say, between his legs." If it was in the front seat my guess is he'd have been charged.
Also, this idea that it was 2 or 3 years ago is odd, considering Parsons' incident was also in 2018, and since then he has had a child, which changes most people's outlook on life. Yet the majority of BBI was strongly against Parsons. Sadly, we'll be dealing with Parsons and Smith (the new DeShaun Jackson) for 10 years
That said, I like the pick and think Toney's quickness and ability to separate in an instant is exactly what Jones and the offense needs.
Yep, I've been here 14 years and guns, college and high school football should be somewhere in the state constitution. A large percentage of Floridians are gun owners. So the kid has an AR-15...big deal. Once he is a responsible gun owner he can have all the guns he wants.
Seriously, I wonder about the mental state.
SOunds like the Giants spent alot of time looking into Toney and alot of time with him personally getting to know him and were satisfied.
Gun culture is deeply embedded down here
Seriously, I wonder about the mental state.
Due respect, but I think many of us don't fully realize the state of affairs in the areas some of these kids come from
Not trying to make any kind of larger political/social commentary here. I grew up in a town where we rode our bikes around the neighborhood after school and the worst that happened was a kid got a bruise in a backyard pickup game
But i'm also aware for kids from some parts of this country, feeling compelled to carry a gun at 18 for protection is a fact of life.
I actually think the fact he was doing so legally and didn't get arrested for anything related to it is a good sign
From article:
"Toney told police he needed the weapon for protection from locals in Gainesville because "they be coming after us." The stop came after tension (and at least one fight) between some Gators and Gainesville residents, including Devante "Tay Bang" Zachery."
Link - ( New Window )
Regardless, how they say it doesn't really matter but only if it sinks in.
I do have laugh how we Giants fans will look the other way when it's one of our guys. We've had a lot of shady characters play for this team.
EVERY Team has "a lot of shady characters". Unfortunately it's part of the deal for everyone. I'm paraphrasing here, but I remember Francesa asked Reese about Bradshaw's issues(remember he had to serve time after his rookie season for a college era incident), Reese said something to the effect that you investigate, meet the kid, and have to determine if the incident was just a stupid transgression, or if the kid really is a bad guy who will always be in trouble. If the former you take him, the latter you pass.
Dollars to doughnuts a solid majority of players are gun owners.
This won't change your mind, but it should. From Webster's (and other dictionaries):
"Assault rifle: any of various intermediate-range, magazine-fed military rifles (such as the AK-47) that can be set for automatic or semiautomatic fire
also : a rifle that resembles a military assault rifle but is designed to allow only semiautomatic fire."