New York Giants sixth-round draft pick, Corey Ballentine was injured in a shooting Saturday night that killed his best friend and teammate, Dwane Simmons. Although Ballentine and Simmons appeared to just be in the wrong place at the wrong time, a non-remorseful Mike Francesa went on his WFAN radio show and criticized the Giants for making the draft pick.
“When you finish your draft and stress how you went out of your way to take the right kind of guys, guys that you want on the team, guys that are going to 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. It does not look good. It’s just more of the same for the Giants, who just can’t get out of their own way”
“As someone who’s been around the Giants for 40 years,” Francesa continued, “It’s sad to see the Giants become a laughingstock that they have around the league.”
The New York Post reached out to Ballentine’s father, Karl Vaughn who vehemently defended his son against any criticism from Francesa.
“This is the kid that that guy [Francesa] wished he had as his son,” Vaughn told Kate Sheehy of The Post.
After the Giants drafted Ballentine in the sixth-round out of Washburn University, the 23-year old defensive back went to an off-campus party with his friend, Dwane Simmons to celebrate.
“It was just two blocks from his house — it was not a thug area or a hoodlum area,” Vaughn said of the party Ballentine and Simmons attended. “It was just wrong place, wrong time.”
According to Vaughn, his son was the type of high-character player the Giants were looking for in this year’s NFL Draft.
“I tell you what. You can pick up every stone and every rock on the ground, and you won’t find a smidge of dirt tied to that boy,” Vaughn said. “He never had a discipline referral, never been suspended from school. He was an honor-roll student.”
In terms of how Ballentine is recouping from the act of senseless violence, Vaughn told The Post, “He’s about as well as expected for a 23-year-old who just got shot … and lost a good friend,”
“He holds a lot of stuff in. He’s going to have to let some out,” Vaughn added.
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.