Giants’ Evan Neal apologizes again to fans — ‘I’m human’

New York Giants right tackle Evan Neal stood in front of his locker at the team’s practice facility, faced the media and apologized again for his ill-advised rant on Wednesday when he said fans critical of him were “sheep” and people who “flip hot dogs and hamburgers somewhere.”

“I definitely could’ve used a better choice of words,” said Neal. “Coming from humble beginnings myself, I never want to belittle anyone. Regardless of their financial status or their occupation. I really just want to apologize for what I said.”

Neal grew up in Okeechobee, Fla., where his family runs a small neighborhood convenience store.

Neal said his comments came “out of a moment of frustration.”

“Right now, we must play better as a team, and I must perform better myself,” he said. “I just kind of let my frustrations get the best of me in that moment.

“Right now, I’m just not performing at my absolute best. We’re not performing as a team to our absolute best and it’s frustrating when you’re a competitor, when you want to win, and you put a lot of hard work into something and you’re not getting the result that you want. It’s tough and it’s frustrating.”

Neal said he knows his words were “unacceptable.”

“I wasn’t trying to pick a fight with anyone, honestly. That was just a moment of frustration. I kind of said something, although it wasn’t my intent to offend anyone or anyone’s occupation, but that’s how it came across. I own up to that,” he said. “I definitely could have just used a better choice of words for sure, but I mean…Hey, I love the fans that support us and are behind us and want to fight for us and cheer for us. I just apologize to those that I offended.

“I want the fans to know that I’m a human like everyone else. If you ask anyone that’s ever been around me, they always speak highly of me. Nobody’s perfect, including myself. I just want to apologize again for the things that I said yesterday, because I know it’s unacceptable, and I just could have used a better choice of words.”