JPP is burning a lot more than digits on his hand. He’s burning bridges with his behavior.
His decision to not allow the Giants to speak with him, his doctors, or review his medical condition is within his rights. After all, he is not under contract. But that door swings both ways.
He’s rapidly losing the Giants. As a fan, he has lost my trust. Where does the mistrust come from? Is it fair if this were just one incident? People do deserve the benefit of the doubt. But there is history with JPP. (1) For starters, he showed up at camp as a rookie with a back problem. This was news to the Giants. It reminded me immediately of Jeff Hatch, the Round 3 draft pick from 2002, who demanded protection from practicing in rookie minicamp without some kind of (contract) protection. This was a red flag because Hatch was hurt all along. (2) He did not show up at the 2015 mandatory offseason OTA because he was technically not yet under contract despite his franchise tag; it may prevent him from being fined, but he is not helping his team or himself to get better. And it just demonstrated to me JPP’s selfishness. (3) How many times recently has JPP boasted and inflated his prowess (/comeback) and then underwhelmed? While I value confidence, I abhor false bravado and see it as a character flaw. (4) That JPP even wears the franchise tag in the first place should remind us of something- in the past 22 years the NY Giants have only used it twice, and that was to lock up Jacobs and Weatherford to a longer term deal, which they did ~2 weeks later. So JPP stands alone as a tagged Giants player. The irony of not doing a deal w the Giants is palpable. (5) Many other anecdotes demonstrating less than 100% confidence in his character.
What does he have to hide? Is he so sullen, bitter and disrespected at being tagged with a $14.8MM contract? Is he so offended at the Giants for not offering him a big long term deal? Get over yourself, you immature kid. Adults communicate. Children have temper tantrums and play head games.
Have his agents advised him to block all outside contact? For what possible purpose? His agents are doing much more harm than good if they think they are helping. If it is indeed his agents who are the ones advising him not to interact with the Giants, then they do not know the rules about NFL contracts.
One of my favorite quotes is from Robert Frost: “The best way out is through.” If you are in a difficult position and have a difficult problem, come clean. Hiding inside a hospital room is not helping. As Ralph Vacchiano points out, the NY Giants are a class franchise who helped players like Chad Jones and others with non-football injuries (NFI).
The NY Giants are investing $14.8M dollars in Jason Pierre-Paul. While they technically do not have him under contract, this is obviously a significant enough amount of money where they should be entitled to some solid information. If someone asked you to buy a house without an inspection, what would you say to that deal? I’d say to you this: WALK AWAY. Or better yet, run. RUN AWAY VERY FAST. This is business. This is about trust and respect. How much trust do you have in JPP? Right now, I have none.
So what is next? The link above about the rules of NFL contracts makes it seem as if the best move for the Giants right now is to do the tag deal and then put him on the NFI list. This way he does not get paid until he plays. And if you want to release him, you release him AFTER having seen his recovery and what level of football he can play at. Because this is a NON football injury, it gives the Giants plenty of protection. If I am the Giants, I am already thinking I am going to release him thereafter, because I do not think he is going to be able to play football at a competitive enough level to warrant that kind of money. David Diehl and others went to lengths to explain how critical a lineman’s hands are to playing football. This is a game of fractions of a split second, where 0.1 second could be the difference between a pressure and a hurry, or between a hurry and a hit, a hit and sack, & a sack and sack/strip. So I see a scenario where the Gmen will not be paying JPP much of any salary at all this season. And that is fine by me. He doesn’t deserve it because I can’t trust him.
Where is the respect for an employer? This employer, the NY Giants, is about to give you $14.8M dollars. Respect goes both ways. At this point the Giants cannot spend that money on him. They also cannot spend it on anyone else. Who pays the Giants bills? The fans, of course. If I am the Giants, I respect my fan base, the ones I gouged with those insane PSLs, and I give rebates based on JPP’s unpaid salary. There are roughly 82,000 fans that fill MetLife. Assuming there are 80,000 PSL seats, 14.813M/80K = $185 per PSL. It’s roughly equivalent to one football game. On average, I would rebate every PSL seat $185 and respect them by saying we apologize for not being able to put 100% of the salary cap on the field. It is about respect for the people who sign your check.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
