When Tim Apple came on to the scene, Annie Apple already had three sons and two of them was from an abusive relationship. Apple took them all in and became a father to the boys, to the point Eli took his last night, but since this summer they haven’t spoken.
She explains why.
Tim Apple has been Eli’s only father figure since he was two years old, as you may have learned in Annie Apples SI column last year she left an abusive relationship with his biological father and since meeting Tim, he has tried his best to give her three sons from previous relationships a normal life. Tim has been by Eli’s side his ENTIRE football career, since the day Eli picked up a football. He has always been the one to make sure he has scheduled massages, Wakes up to train, stayed on top of him keeping him focused. When Annie gave the kids a heads up through a TEXT in the spring about their separation, it affected the whole family. Eli held a regular relationship with Tim until about July. Since then there’s been a lot of adversity that Eli has had to face and no positive let alone no male influence in his corner to help him stand in the face of this adversity. Not to mention kept him in line, even this past season during his offseason when he was supposed to join Logan Ryan in Arizona for training but insisted on going to California instead. If Tim were involved from then to now, there would be less time for leisure and more time becoming a better athlete. There’s no doubt that Eli is a talented player, we’ve seen this since his early games at OSU and even during his first few games as an NYG but since Tim has been banned from the picture Eli is taking a fall as an athlete. The positive enforcement and structure he needs he may not be able to find in the support system he has right now.
In the spring of 2016 she sent a group text to all of her children stating that she and Tim would be separating, then a month later announced a divorce via Facebook. In June the divorce was finalized. The family tried to maintain a normal relationship instead of the regular divided tradition that follows a divorce. Divorce in itself is hard to deal with I know from my own experiences, but when you then have someone feeding you false information about the other parent and not seeking the answers yourself, you are forced to pick sides. Annie made a statement to Eli about Tim “stealing money,” but bank records and receipts have shown that was false.
It’s been hard for me to become this source, to be the only person to “air out family business” in no way shape or form is it comfortable for me to do so but something obviously needs to change and with change comes the uncomfortable of learning the truth. We learned of Annie’s affair over the summer when emails were found between the two. The affair started 5 years ago, Daniel actually has spoken to the man involved who confirmed this. She has painted Tim to be some type of liar to Eli to the point where Eli has refused to even speak to his agent about it. The rest is still an evolving case that we’re collecting information about so that’s all I can say.
A lot of people wonder if the family is coming out publicly against Annie because Annie has cut off the money supply to the family, Phoenix says that is not the case, they just want Eli to succeed and feel like Annie is making it harder on him.
First thing I can say is people will assume what they want, but I can assure you my family has never seen a dime from his draft day. Even on birthdays and holidays, my kids have seen nothing so how is it I’m mad bc we got cut from a finical disperse that never included my family?
Honestly, I think the biggest thing we want to get across to him is you get ONE life, and one thing that is far more expensive than money is time. This time that he’s wasted this year just being dragged down his mother’s path of revenge and pettiness is the time he can not get back. This time that he could’ve been looking into the FACTS instead of just following her every word he could’ve been down to the bottom of this and been right back on track as the Athlete that is and could be. Just like he was challenged in the locker room with adversity and conflict he has been faced off the field with similar conflict and does not know how to accept it, receive it, and respond to it. If your mom can and will write off every other family member other than you what do you think the pattern is? The other family members only want her to tell the truth to you so you can be set from the chains of manipulation. From the outside looking in it may be hard to distinguish our passion from anger but be assured we are not angry, I still pray for her my kids do too. It’s a shame that one would rather tarnish a whole family and her son’s career to protect her image.
The solution is simple, handle this on your OWN. With recent tweets to Britt Mchenry Annie has shown her inability to accept criticism and also own up to her own words/actions this is what she has been passing down to Eli. Fighting fire with Fire is never good, we honestly just want him to take a sit down and see the proof that we have to verify this whole thing. After that, I’m sure he will know what needs to be done.
Eli Apple is not going to be able to flourish on the field until he cleans up what is going on off the field. I understand it is his mother, but maybe it is the time that he takes a step back from everyone and decide what is best for Eli.
He is getting hit with some heavy stuff from all different directions, and he has to grow up now. The NFL stands for NOT FOR LONG. They don’t care about what is going on at home, they care about your production on the field, and if Eli doesn’t get it together soon, he won’t have to worry about a story like these because no one will care anymore because he won’t be in the league.