The New York Giants were blown out by the Dallas Cowboys, 40-0, on Sunday night. The defeat was the worst opening-week loss in franchise history.
It was a bad look for the organization and it was a bad look for second-year head coach Brian Daboll.
On Monday morning, the look appeared to get even worse for Daboll when long-time sports broadcaster Michael Kay shared an odd report.
During the Monday Night Football preview episode of The Michael Kay Show, Kay suggested Daboll threw a rager at his house the night prior to the humiliating loss.
“I have it on good authority that Brian Daboll had a huge party at his house on Saturday night,” Kay said. “You’re not throwing a big party if you’re about to get your butt kicked by the Cowboys. So, this took everybody by surprise. And that’s what’s scary. Nobody expected this sort of blowout. They thought that they were going to play with them and they didn’t even show up.
“That scares me guys. That tells me that they don’t even know their own team. There’s no way the head coach of a team throws a huge party like that the night before the opener if they think that there’s a chance that they’re going to get blown out.”
Of course, no team thinks they’re going to get blown out.
Still, having a huge team party at his house the night prior to the regular season opener seems wildly out of character for Daboll. It’s also wildly out of character for the Giants captains and remaining roster.
At least it would have been. If the story were accurate.
As it turns out, there was no team rager at Daboll’s house the night prior to the game. He and the players weren’t getting smashed until the wee hours of the morning. Rather, Daboll and his family held a small party for his six-year-old son’s birthday.
On Tuesday, during the third hour of his show, Kay retracted his “report” and issued an apology to Daboll, his family, and the Giants organization.
“I need to make a heartfelt apology to Brian Daboll,” Kay said. “I should have done more work. I’m a complete (expletive) for doing this, and I feel sorry for any pain I may have caused that family by insinuating anything. But I found out later it was a party for his 6-year-old, it was a birthday party.
“I should have dug deeper. I didn’t think it was going to be a big thing, but it became sort of a big thing last night. And I just want to cut it off at the legs and say that is on me and I was irresponsible because I didn’t check it out further. I apologize to anybody who was impacted by my flippant remark about a party at his house.”
Kay referred to himself as a “complete idiot” and admitted his report was a “huge mistake.” He is “sorry, sorry, sorry.”
Initial reports of the Daboll rager grew legs and spread fast. It became viral in a matter of hours and spread far and wide on Tuesday before Kay issued his retraction.
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