Prince Amukamara had sex for the first time this offseason. This may be an important thing to know. Antrel Rolle believes so. Rolle credited a strong start by the cornerback -- two picks in four games -- to Amukamara's sexual liberation.
Prince Amukamara’s teammates are very happy he lost his virginity
All Prince Amukamara had to do to be accepted by the Giants was get married and have sex for the first time.
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“I think it all ties into one another, as far as him getting married, being able to (have sex),” Rolle said about his teammate who had abstained from premarital sex due to his religious beliefs. “He’s just developing more as a man and accepting challenges and being the dominant player that we need him to be that we know he’s capable of.”
Rolle uses "we," because Amukamara's play is naturally the New York Giants' concern. The correlation between sex and manhood is the awkward bit. The Giants have long held a conception of what Amukamara ought to be. Jason Pierre-Paul started a small controversy when he dumped Amukamara in a cold tub in 2012 in front of condoning teammates, and Amukamara defended the incident without ever actually saying he was cool with it. Pierre-Paul and teammates wanted Amukamara to bust out of his calm demeanor, apparently. Via the New York Daily News:
The incident looked ugly. Pierre-Paul threw Amukamara down dangerously hard into the metal tub on a cement floor. Teammates lined the way, cheering JPP on, screaming obscenities and yelling things like “Prince, what are you doing fool?” and “You better stand up for yourself.”
Amukamara said at the time that the incident was not the worst of the hazing he had experienced, and that “there have been times where it’s gone overboard and I’ve had to say something.”
It was all supposedly done in the name of making him better. In the offseason before the 2013 season, then-Giants safety Kenny Phillips said that Amukamara was starting to look more like a football player -- "He feels like he really belongs out there."
Amukamara’s play speaks to his belonging, as well. His career was set back by injuries, but he is rounding into the player he was expected to become when he was selected No. 19 overall in the 2011 NFL Draft. He assumed a full-time starting roll in 2012 after appearing in just seven games as a rookie. He is leading a secondary that has allowed the second-lowest passer rating (73.4) to opponents in the league through four weeks.
Amukamara’s foray into marriage and the benefits it bears may be the end of a years-long odyssey to prove his worth within how his teammates define a man and a football player. Throughout that odyssey, there isn’t much mention of how Amukamara’s teammates have adapted to him. His changes as a player and person have made his eccentricities more tolerable to his teammates. Whether that counts in the end as acceptance is still a hazy thing.
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