Rashad Jennings apologizes for throwing Eli Manning under the proverbial bus

New York Giants running back Rashad Jennings is sorry.

No, not for failing to score a touchdown in the final minutes of Sunday night's game against the Dallas Cowboys that would have all but sealed a Giants victory.

He is sorry for telling everyone that quarterback Eli Manning, confused by the number of timeouts the Cowboys had left, told him not to score.

The Giants, of course, settled for a field goal, but left enough time on the clock for Tony Romo to rally the Cowboys to a 27-26 victory.

In a weekly column he does for The New York Post, Jennings wrote:

First of all, let me say that I want to apologize from my heart for the negative light that I unintentionally cast my quarterback and friend Eli Manning in. I continue to have the utmost respect for him, and I have complete trust in his leadership. It is a strange and unwelcome feeling I have that after all these years as a professional football player, I finally get to experience the other side of how words can be misconstrued.

I see now how what I said could easily be misunderstood as an expression of resentment. I make no claims to be a perfect communicator. But I also assure that I had no ill will at all in stating what I did. Yet I admit in retrospect that I should not have shared that information with the world. I chose to do so, and for that choice, I am truly sorry.

As soon as I got word of the headlines, I called Eli, and before I could even begin to apologize, he basically expressed his understanding. Being the humble guy that he is, he wanted us to put this fiasco behind us with no hard feelings so that we could focus on the Falcons. That is why I am taking this opportunity to more formalize my apology to Eli, the team and the fans.

I also have apologized to Coach [Tom] Coughlin.