Seeming to have matured since those days, Apple says he has “love” for the Giants
Eli Apple had, to say the least, a tumultuous and disappointing two-plus seasons with the New York Giants. In a recent interview, it seems like Apple, now 29 with a wife and daughter, has grown from his immature days with the Giants.
Here are the Giants-related things Apple told Kyle Odegard of ReadWrite in an exclusive interview:
Q: When you look back at your Giants tenure, do you wish it would have gone differently?
Eli Apple: “I mean, of course, yeah. You wish you would have handled things differently. But I think the beauty of everything is not having regret, but learning from those mistakes and knowing you had to go through that to become who you are. I say that a lot. And I don’t really have any regrets, honestly. I think everything happened for a reason. I’m very thankful to get drafted by the Giants and get that opportunity. That was amazing.
“I learned a lot throughout that time about myself. I learned a lot about the people close to me, and I needed to go through what I went through to be where I am now, so I don’t have any regrets at all. We had a great team our rookie year, and then kind of went downhill from there, and we never really regained that momentum that we had. But even me as a player too, I thought I played well my rookie year, and then the second year wasn’t what I needed. I didn’t start off the way I needed to, and then I ended up getting better, getting back in my groove towards the middle of the season. And the third season, I thought I started off well, but we were kind of already past what the expectation they had for me. So they ended up getting rid of me, and from there, I have love for them anyway, because I ended up going to a great team in New Orleans and learning a lot about myself, a lot about winning, and then going from there to Cincinnati.”
Q: Being an East Coast guy, do you think it helped from a maturity standpoint to go to New Orleans, where it was kind of an unfamiliar setting? Can you compare and contrast what it was like in New York and New Orleans?
Eli Apple: “Oh, it was a lot different. When I was in New York, I had a lot of family close by. That’s a good thing, but it can be a bad thing. It can be a distraction or it can be a blessing having that support, having friends close. Going to New Orleans, it was strictly football as soon as I got there. I didn’t have to worry about any family members calling or pulling up. I was just able to put a laser focus on football, learning the playbook as fast as possible and continuing to grow. That was a blessing, honestly.
“Being a young guy coming in, you try to balance everything, and you try to play Superman. Sometimes it’s tough. You have to leave people where they are, because you can’t save everybody. That was my mistake, trying to do too much. And then a lot of stuff with my family ended up becoming public, and it unraveled. It played with my peace, played with my emotions. I think that ended up carrying out onto the field, not being able to focus. New Orleans was a great reset, and the love I got there was something I’ll always appreciate.”
Q: When the trade happened it may have been chaotic. Was there a point a month or two later when you realized it was a good thing?
Eli Apple: “Chaotic is what I knew from being in the media storm of New York. So when I got to New Orleans, the media wasn’t as ruthless when I got out there. It was more calm for me. I was leaving a tornado, and I was coming into more of a family, more of a group of people that had more love and appreciation for what I brought to the table.”
Q: You acknowledged that you had some faults in New York. Was there anything misconstrued? Was there anything that rubbed you the wrong way because of how it was presented?
Eli Apple: “Honestly, no. I don’t really try to spend too much time reading about everything that happened. I don’t try to look backwards and see what people are talking about. At that time, I was such a young, hot-headed kid, and at different points I was feeling like a lot of the blame on how the season was going was kind of towards me. That was something I didn’t appreciate, and I was kind of defending myself a lot in those meetings. Outbursts happened. But it is what it is. It happened that way, and from there I grew.”
The Giants drafted Apple, a cornerback, 10th overall in 2016. That seemed to be a bad decision from the start.
By 2017, Apple’s second season, it was obviously disastrous. Apple was disliked by teammates, called a cancer on the team by Landon Collins, benched several times and inactive in other games. He was suspended at the end of a 3-14 season “for a pattern of behavior that is detrimental to the team.” That same week, he refused to speak with media by saying “I gotta take a s—-.”
Apple has played for the Saints, Panthers, Bengals, Dolphins and Chargers since being traded to New Orleans during the 2018 season. He is still looking for a 2025 employer.
He told Odegard he no longer trolls on social media, where he often got himself into trouble.
“Life is just different,” Apple told ReadWrite in an exclusive interview. “I mean, are there things I would like to Tweet? Yeah. My mind is always running. I have a lot of opinions about stuff, especially sports-related. But for me, I just like to protect my peace first and foremost. Family and everything, that comes first for me, and getting in internet squabbles isn’t really on the top of my priority list.”
“I made a lot of crazy moves, and I was going back and forth a lot (with people on Twitter) from when I was with the Giants to the Saints and then the Bengals. So I don’t want that to continue for me, because it’s not something that’s healthy. I want to push positivity and love, because we live in a world where it’s rare to find, especially with social media.”
While definitely a bad Apple with the Giants, it appears the young man has grown up. Good for him.