Now unemployed, Janoris Jenkins becomes contrite over his use of an offensive term

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Before the Giants released cornerback Janoris Jenkins, he was unapologetic to the point of defiant regarding the use of an offensive term when interacting with a Twitter critic. Now that Jenkins needs one of the other 31 teams to claim his contract on waivers, he’s singing a different tune.

Appearing on the TMZ Sports TV show, Jenkins tried to erase the perception/reality that he had no qualms about using the word, and that he’d do so again.

“You just admit to it,” Jenkins said. “Admit that you did wrong, which I did.”

But he didn’t, at least not immediately. He said what he had to say to Giants coach Pat Shurmur, and then Jenkins seemed to make it clear that he’d use the word again, if he saw fit.

“[A]t the end of the day it’s my slang,” Jenkins told reporters on Thursday. “So if you take it how you’re going to take it, it’s on you. I don’t mean to offend nobody. My dad always told me, ‘Speak freely and own up to what you say.’ So I always speak freely as a man and I speak how I want to speak.”

Now, he’s using different buzz words to try to rebuild his career.

“It’s always a learning moment,” he said. “Everybody’s going to learn from different situations . . . move forward and learn.”

“Move forward” is the key. It will be hard for him to move forward to a new team if the new team believes he’ll do the same thing again, creating an unwanted distraction and forcing the team to abruptly release him, like the Giants did.

Jenkins’ contract is subject to waivers, with a claiming deadline of Monday at 4:00 p.m. ET.