Giants’ Xavier McKinney has ‘good relationship’ with Wink Martindale

Following a Week 9 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, safety Xavier McKinney griped about New York Giants coaches, claiming they weren’t listening to players.

Those comments created a domino effect that culminated with defensive coordinator Wink Martindale “parting ways” with the team.

At the time, McKinney’s comments were believed to be aimed at Martindale, who quickly responded uncharacteristically, telling reporters that he was caught off guard and “hurt” by the safety’s criticism.

“I mean it surprised me because it’s the first time it’s ever happened in my career,” Martindale said days later. “That a player would make a statement like that. I think it was a case where the kid is just frustrated from losing. We spoke, we cleared it up. The example that he gave me of what he was talking about was an in-game adjustment and it was over — I mean it really took a while for him to point out to me exactly what it was, but I think that you grow from that.”

While that would lead one to believe that Martindale and McKinney had a poor relationship, that turns out not to be the case.

On Wednesday, McKinney told Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News that he and Martindale still speak and that he’s got nothing but respect for the defensive coordinator.

“Just to clear it up, I’ve seen so many different things about, ‘Oh he’s saying whatever about Wink Martindale’; we have a good relationship,” McKinney said. “I talked to him. We’ve talked. Obviously, in any relationship with anybody, nothing is ever gonna be perfect. You’re not gonna agree with everything. Sometimes we weren’t on the same page, but we ended up getting on the same page. And I think that’s all that mattered.

“But we still have a really good relationship. I actually talked to him when he resigned. We talked and we texted. And I told him how much I appreciated him and how much respect that I have for him, and how much he helped me out throughout the season and helped me learn and helped me grow as a person and as a player.”

McKinney added that the two have a “really good relationship” and he expects that to continue.

“We always are gonna have a good connection regardless,” he added.

McKinney is not the first Giants player to offer high praise for Martindale, who now serves as the defensive coordinator at Michigan.