Giants Supporting Potential Eli Manning Replacement Charged with Eluding Police and Resisting Arrest
When last we checked in on New York Giants backup quarterback Kyle Lauletta, he was facing potential criminal charges for nearly running over a police officer with his car.
Turns out the Giants, after investigating the matter internally, still plan to keep Lauletta around and remain high on his potential.
A report from CBS Sports holds that the Giants continue to see Lauletta as a potential replacement for Eli Manning, who continues to challenge the NBA’s Carmelo Anthony for the title of Most Washed-Up Player in Sports.
Lauletta spent six hours in jail last week after getting busted for eluding police and resisting arrest, those charges coming on the heels of an incident where Lauletta’s failure to obey the instructions of a traffic cop nearly led to the quarterback’s car making an open-field tackle in an intersection.
Lauletta, for his part, admitted that he should have obeyed the directive of the officer, but insists that he was never anywhere close to actually running the cop over.
The Giants, for their part, declared themselves to be satisfied that the incident was not a symptom of broader problems and have decided to overlook it.
Their third-round draft pick also plans to fight any criminal charges that may come his way. The league office has also not yet made any moves to punish Lauletta under any league-wide personal conduct rules.
Manning, meanwhile, simply continues to struggle to justify his starting spot.
He was already benched last year in favor of Geno Smith for a game, and this year, the 1-7 Giants need to find a working solution to their problem under center since in the deepest quarterback draft since 1983, they instead used the second-overall pick on running back Saquon Barkley.
Barkley has been an electrifying rookie, averaging 4.7 yards per carry, but in the pass-wacky NFL, he’s not exactly having an impact the way guys like Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith used to back in dinosaur times.
Coach Pat Shurmur has even said out loud that the team must be willing and able to make wholesale changes, as its horrendous offense, 27th in points scored per game and 31st in rushing yards despite Barkley’s contribution, continues to fall short.
They have their running back of the future. They have All-World wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.
What they need is a quarterback. And apparently, nearly running over a police officer isn’t going to disqualify a candidate for the job.
Lauletta’s character has, thankfully, been endorsed by his college coaches.
At Richmond, Lauletta was acclaimed for his character and leadership abilities on and off the field, part of the reason a player from a nondescript school got picked in the third round in the first place.
And provided his legal troubles don’t keep him off the field, the Giants plan to get him reps with the first team in practice.
It seems oddly appropriate that a team whose season has been a car crash should have so much trouble with a literal incident involving a car.
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