Yankees legend Derek Jeter reflects on dealing with New York tabloids

Retired New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter has addressed commonly being a target of local tabloids during his playing days. 

"A lot of times you’ve got to bite your tongue on a daily basis," Jeter said during this week's edition of "The Eli Manning Show" which is shared on the New York Giants' YouTube page, per Jaclyn Hendricks of the New York Post. "With New York, I always felt as though you want to try to limit the distractions, and if you keep adding to a story it just becomes a distraction for a long period of time. So you address something once — I think there’s a lot of times people have stories out there you know are untrue, but if you do address it then it just continues to go.

"So I think, yeah, you have to bite your tongue in those situations. And then also, you were married younger than I was, so gossip pages know quite a bit on that." 

The Post and its Page Six weren't always kind to the Hall of Famer who had his on- and off-the-field lives chronicled in the ESPN docuseries "The Captain," which was released this past summer. Back in the fall of 2012, the Post referred to the former shortstop as "Derek Eater." 

Jeter seemingly is now able to laugh about that headline a decade after the fact. 

"I will never say anything bad about the gossip pages, ever," Jeter continued during his conversation with Manning. "Just on record, I did not say a bad thing about Page Six or the gossip pages. I love all you guys. But yeah, anytime there’s something about your private life that’s not true, you’ve gotta bite your tongue." 

Jeter's personal life likely seems quite boring to Page Six and other outlets these days, as he's happily married and has three daughters. For now, he can stick to generating headlines via harmless actions such as offering praise for manager Aaron Boone shortly after the Yankees were swept by the Houston Astros in this year's American League Championship Series.