Fresh off a gut-wrenching loss, Pat Shurmur was not having any more nonsense Sunday.
Moments after the Giants fell to the Panthers via Graham Gano's game-winning 63-yard field goal, Shurmur took the podium and was asked about Odell Beckham's divisive comments that aired before New York's Week 5 game. It wasn't the first time he was asked about it, and he was very clearly done with the topic.
"All right, listen, I'm going to answer all the drama questions right now, and I'm going to go back to what I said," Shurmur said, referring to his Friday response. "I addressed it with Odell. I addressed it with our team. I publicly declared that I didn't agree with his comments. And I asked anybody who's interested that if they wanted a clarification to go to Odell because he's a big man."
Shurmur's frustration became evident in his tone as his voice slowly rose.
"These are the kind of things, in my opinion, when you have the locker room that we have that will help galvanize it because the locker room took care of it," Shurmur said emphatically. "And that's all I'm saying on it. Finito, done."
Shurmur can refuse to respond to questions and tell everyone his locker room dealt with it, and New York can feed Beckham targets (he received 14 Sunday, with eight catches for 131 yards and one touchdown). It can even get Beckham involved by having him throw a touchdown. But for as long as Beckham is on the team and New York isn't stringing together wins, this kind of thing is liable to continue happening.
Especially when it's construed as having a positive effect.
"I don't regret anything," Beckham said after Sunday's close loss, via ESPN. "I don't regret anything that I said. If it took that for us to come together as a team like we did [Sunday]. I can take that every single time."
The microscope of the New York media only makes a future outburst more likely -- and it appears as though it's something Shurmur is learning on the fly.
Case in point: Beckham's comments about not throwing the ball down the field and his team lacking heart came at the end of the work week. His inflammatory comments related to his quarterback, whom he didn't exactly defend when given the opportunity, were made public Sunday morning, just hours before the Giants kicked off in Charlotte.
There's a positive element to this, though: Beckham knew what was coming after he'd done the interview with ESPN, and asked to speak with his teammates before it came out.
"It's been on my heart. And I think all the stuff that was built up inside, it just kinda -- it came out in the wrong way," Beckham said Sunday, via ESPN. "And I texted [Shurmur], and I asked if I could have a minute to just talk to the team, because I feel like if we're not all on the same page. If it's not authentic and real, and we can all understand each other, then there's always gonna be miscommunication. So to be able to do that was big for me."
Then Manning went out and posted a 22-of-36 passing line with 326 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. It was as good as it was ugly -- and though the Giants surged late, it didn't produce a win.
So sure, this is "finito" in the eyes of Shurmur. But if history is any indicator, it's highly unlikely this is the last we'll hear from Beckham, the No. 1 weapon on a 1-4 Giants team, especially if those in the locker room feel it brought them closer.
