What The Future Holds For Jason Pierre-Paul

It can happen to anybody, even professional athletes. It's a pretty well known fact that playing with fireworks, while fun, can be very dangerous. New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul found that out the hard way over the weekend. While hanging out in South Florida over 4th of July weekend, JPP was setting off fireworks when one blew up, causing pretty sever injuries to his hand. According to multiple reports, Pierre-Paul had to have his right index finger amputated and has a fracture thumb. With the fractured thumb, according to sources, that will take about six weeks to heal, and it will take about half of that for the index finger to heal. There's more to this story than just the fact that he hurt his hand.

What has me scratching my head a little bit with this story is, why didn't JPP and his people tell the Giants about this. According to reports, when the Giants went to visit Pierre-Paul in the hospital in Florida on Wednesday, they never got the chance to see their best defensive lineman. What I want to know is what could JPP possibly be hiding? I mean think about it. He plays in the state of New York, and I don't mean to brag but we do have some of the best hospitals in the United States. Also the Giants have been known for taking care of injured players. Chad Jones, who was in a career-ending car wreck soon after he was drafted? The Giants kept him on the payroll and took care of his medical expenses, even though they were pretty sure he’d never play a down for them. They also kept running back David Wilson around for a year after a neck condition ended his career, too (Daily News).

It still leaves me scratching my head why the Giants were left out of the loop. Big Blue is going out of their way to try and take care of their player, even though he isn't under contract with the team at the moment. Maybe this could be a move by Pierre-Paul's camp to try and get out of New York. This doesn't make a whole lot of sense as to why the Giants are being left out of the loop here with their own players injury. The offer is still on the table for the $14.813 million franchise tag for JPP, an offer which still stands until the 15th. I think once things get settled down with JPP, the talks will resume. Looking at this from a Giants perspective, for arguments sake, it might hurt the team if they lose JPP, to either injury list or free agency. I know its not the same position but Kenrick Ellis, Robert Ayers, Kerry Wynn, and Jordan Stanton are also possibilities to replace Pierre-Paul on the line. Its taking a big hit to the Giants pass-rush and run stopping game if JPP isn't there.

Now lets look at this from JPP's side of things. It was just a freak accident that he hurt his hand, it can happen to anybody. When you injury your hand, it makes it hard to make plays, especially in football, when your hands are a pretty vital body part to your livelihood. Since there's a bad thumb and finger it may make it hard to grip. If that's the case, it makes things hard for JPP, because he can't get a good hold on an opposing player that he's trying to wrap up to make a tackle. If there's damage to the hand it may make things hard when he's trying to knock down, or even possibly intercept a pass. This could hurt his chances on the free agent market, should he possibly leave the Giants either this year or down the road.

This whole situation still leaves a lot to be desired. Hopefully, some of those questions will be answered over the next few days