McAdoo owns up to handling of Eli benching: 'My bedside manner hurt me'

Ben McAdoo has come out of hiding.

The former head coach of the New York Giants, fired in December after a 2-10 start to the 2017 season, has re-emerged in recent weeks.

On Monday, he penned a section in Peter King's "Football Morning in America" column on the lessons he learned during his first head coaching stint.

McAdoo took ownership of his decision to ask two-time Super Bowl champion Eli Manning to take a backseat in order to get a look at younger quarterbacks in a lost year. It led to Manning opting to end his consecutive streak of games started at 210.

"I learned there's no easy way to make the truly tough decisions," McAdoo wrote. "Right or wrong, I am at peace with how I handled the decision to play quarterbacks other than Eli Manning down the stretch of last season. At the time, we were 2-9, beat up, and I told Eli we wanted to see the other quarterbacks on the roster - including our promising rookie, Davis Webb."

McAdoo was widely derided for the move and the sloppy manner in which it was executed.

"I gave him the option to start the games to keep his streak alive. I understand why he said no, and he was a true pro about it. My bedside manner hurt me that week. I'm working on that," McAdoo said.

"If there's one thing I want fans of the Giants to know, it's that I made this call to try to make the Giants stronger for the future. It probably got me fired, but I believe I did the right thing for the right reasons."

McAdoo has been out of the game since his firing and said he'd like to get back into coaching.

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