It's Time for the Giants to Cut Losses With Brandon Jacobs

Helmet toss should be final straw in team's relationship with petulant back

Brandon Jacobs is a really lucky guy.

A couple of inches in either direction saved him from being the cause of a serious injury to a fan in Indianapolis on Sunday night when he decided it would be a good idea to throw his helmet into the stands after being yanked from the game by Tom Coughlin. After the game Jacobs claimed that he merely meant to throw the helmet into a bench on the sideline, but it got stuck on his glove and flew into the stands.

Sounds reasonable enough, so long as you don't think back on Jacobs's history of saying one thing while behaving a different way. This was the same guy who claimed he was happy with being Ahmad Bradshaw's backup this summer and then cursed out reporters who asked him if he was okay with the current situation. He's also the same guy who tried to issue a heartfelt apology for trying to decapitate a paying customer by saying he overreacted in the heat of the moment and then tried to decapitate reporters who asked him about what happened during the game. 

Opinions might vary on what kind of punishment Jacobs deserves, but it says here that he should be suspended for next week's game. His intentions may not have been sinister and the outcome relatively benign, but Jacobs put the safety of fans at risk and intent or outcome doesn't much matter in such a situation. The NFL asks way too much of paying customers to have them put in dangerous situations because childish players are unable to channel their anger in ways that don't threaten other people.

Regardless of what the NFL decides to do about Jacobs, it is high time for the Giants to stop trying to get something out of Jacobs. A team that likes to portray itself as the classy organization in town should have no place for a brat who pouts every time he doesn't get his way and is fond of lashing out at people in his vicinity whenever he is in one of his bad moods. According to Tom Rock of Newsday, Jacobs "changed tone from repentant to rage" in the drop of a hat on Sunday night which is the textbook behavior you want to see from an adult.

You could make an argument for putting up with those things if Jacobs was still a decent player, but he isn't even able to fill the role of short yardage back anymore and it's well past the point where you can accept some bogus excuse of injury limiting his effectiveness. He's worn down and thinks he's better than he is, which is best illustrated by Monday's reports that he's going to ask the Giants to trade him.

That sound you don't hear is teams clamoring to deal for a washed-up, overpaid running back who throws things at fans in his spare time. Delusions of grandeur have sunk better men than Jacobs, but the Giants will either need to cut him or simply let him rot on the bench because no one's going to bail them out.

But the Giants need a complement to Ahmad Bradshaw, don't they? It would be nice, but just throwing Jacobs out there doesn't make him a complement. It makes him a guy who plays when Bradshaw isn't in the lineup and the Giants are a far worse team when that's the case. Danny Ware can't be any worse and there are plenty of other backs looking for work or stuck on practice squads around the league. Those backs will be thrilled to play any role for the Giants which makes them a big improvement on the guy that's currently wasting a roster spot.

That's probably not going to happpen because, like we said up top, Jacobs is a lucky guy. Maybe he'll actually realize it one of these days.

Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com. You can follow him on Twitter.

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