With the New York Giants’ pitiful loss in the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs this weekend, you just knew the photo of various Giants players partying on a boat in Florida last week would come back to haunt them. As Sporting News so eloquently pointed out, Twitter is having “a yacht of fun” blasting the Giants and their boat trip.
It also should be no surprise that some people thought it was appropriate to link the men and their playoff loss to being gay, as witnessed by the Photoshopped addition of a gay rainbow flag to the photo. Because, you know, shirtless guys together losing playoff games is gay.
We cannot figure out who actually created the gay-themed doctored photo.
In case you missed it, some of the Giants players in the photo — most notably the alleged ring-leader Odell Beckham Jr. — made a bunch of mistakes on Sunday, including some dropped passes by usually sure-handed Beckham. Of course Beckham said there’s no connection between the yachting trip and his three drops against the Green Bay Packers.
On top of everything else, Beckham has had to deal with “gay” speculation and being the target of gay slurs before.
I’m all for having fun with the Giants players and their foolish choice to take a vacation a few days before a playoff game, and then allowing themselves to be photographed on said vacation. Adding a rainbow flag just raises the ugly specter of homophobia to what is otherwise a comical meme.
The #StraightOuttaPlayoffs meme has been used on social media before, most notably in the last year since the uber-successful film Straight Outta Compton racked up $161 million at the domestic box office in 2015.
Green Bay won the game, 38-13. It was the third-fewest points output for the Giants offense all season.
For more New York Giants news, check out Big Blue View.
