Landon Collins said he met with Eli Apple and Giants interim head coach Steve Spagnuolo on Wednesday morning and apologized for calling Apple "a cancer."
"I apologized for the things I said yesterday," the Pro Bowl safety posted on Twitter. "I never stop supporting my brother/teammate Eli and the rest of my teammates as we move forward. Just want him to know I'm always here for him."
That's a far different tone than the one Collins has used toward Apple in the past two weeks. Before he called Apple a cancer, he'd also made comments that the second-year cornerback needed to grow up and that teammates were raising him more than mentoring him. As recently as Wednesday morning he was quoted by ESPN saying Apple had "given up" on the team because he was sitting on the bench and not standing on the sideline during Sunday's loss to the Cardinals. Apple did not play any defensive snaps in that game.
Of course, the last time Collins said he had met with Apple _ on Dec. 13 _ the conversations were denied by Apple the following day. That apparently sparked the feud between the two players that reached its peak during a Tuesday afternoon interview on ESPN Radio in New York.
"There's one corner that has to establish and needs to grow, and we all know who that is," Collins said when asked for his appraisal of the Giants' secondary. "That would be the only person I would change out of our secondary group. Besides that, the other two guys, DRC (Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie) and Jackrabbit (Janoris Jenkins), I love those two guys. They play hard. They love what they do. But that first pick? ... He's a cancer."
