Exclusive | Stephen A. Smith’s viral Giants rant was based on made-up claim

Stephen A. Smith’s Giants rant was based on a glaring falsehood.

Despite Smith ranting on Friday’s edition of “First Take” that a member of the Giants staff had reached out to ESPN offices or executives about host Elle Duncan’s criticism of Daniel Jones, nobody on the team actually did so, The Post has learned.

“The New York Giants, respectfully, shut the hell up,” Smith said of Duncan’s criticism of Jones on Friday. “Y’all are awful as an organization. You won a Super Bowl in 2007, you won a Super Bowl in 2011, outside of that, since 2011, that’s 13 years, the Giants have made the playoffs twice. They’ve won one playoff game.

“And you’ve got the nerve to sit up there and call the offices and complain to executives about somebody that went on national television to do their job. Why don’t you do your damn job as an organization?”

Though senior vice president of communications Pat Hanlon was critical of Duncan’s comments on X, nobody from the team reached out to ESPN offices or executives, as Smith emphatically claimed.

Smith’s suggestion that the Giants did was either an exaggeration or a blatant lie.

ESPN declined to comment on the discrepancy.

Duncan on Thursday had ripped Jones for writing his comments, that he delivered to the media after he had been benched by the Giants, down on a piece paper to read off of.

An emotional Jones was notably thankful to the Giants organization and his teammates when he spoke.

Duncan quickly came under fire on social media for her ridicule.

“You guys think he had this saved in his notes since like 2020? In all seriousness, DJ, I could have saved you like 90 seconds,” Duncan said during one of her “Taking the Elle” segments. “A rewrite: I’m sorry you paid me $108 million for one playoff win. And I look forward to reviving my career as Brock Purdy’s backup. The end.”

On Friday, Duncan doubled down.

“It started flurrying this morning after a surprising amount of snow on my drive yesterday,” Duncan wrote on X. “I guess you could say I can’t seem to escape all these snowflakes..”

While Smith made his false accusation on “First Take” on Friday, Duncan smirked and sipped from her mug.

“This is a performance-based business,” Smith said. “Nobody is talking about your personal life, nobody has gotten into anything. Your performance was put on public display and you were 20 games under .500. You have been abhorrent. You have been awful as the quarterback for the New York Giants and on top of it all, they let go of Saquon Barkley to make sure they took care of you. They gave you the bag instead of him, which is another blemish.”

The Giants named third-stringer Tommy DeVito their starting quarterback for Sunday’s clash against the Buccaneers at MetLife Stadium, bypassing backup Drew Lock.

But Lock will remain the backup, and after the Giants signed Tim Boyle to their practice squad, Jones was relegated to fourth on the depth chart.

He asked for and was granted his release from the Giants on Friday.