Mike Francesa Blames Giants Draft Pick For Getting Shot And Bringing Shame To The Team

Two Washburn University football players were shot outside of a party in Topeka, Kansas early Sunday morning, according to the Topeka PD. Junior defensive back Dwane Simmons was pronounced dead at the scene, while his teammate Corey Ballentine suffered non-life threatening injuries. Hours before the shooting, Ballentine became the first Washburn player in 11 years to be selected in the NFL Draft when the Giants took him in the sixth round.

Naturally, sports radio goon Mike Francesa has triangulated the least sensitive possible angle. He impugned Ballentine’s character, blamed the player for getting shot, and found that the true tragedy here is that people will laugh at the Giants.

“When you finish your draft and stress how you went out of your way to take the right kind of guys, the guys you want on the team, the guys who are gonna be great-character guys, and you stress that as strongly as the Giants did, it looks pretty bad when one of them gets shot on a Saturday night,” he said. “It does not look good.”

The victim’s father, Navarro Simmons, told local NBC affiliate KSNT that he learned about his son’s death when Ballentine called him from the hospital. He said he was initially excited to get the call, thinking he’d get a chance to congratulate Ballentine, only to learn that his son had been shot dead. As usual, Francesa didn’t read up on the topic he chose to discuss.

H/t to Dave