What was already a traumatic and July 4th weekend to forget for Jason Pierre-Paul turned even worse on Monday.
Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul has reportedly lost his $60 million dollar contract offer from the New York Giants as they have pulled it off the table after the incident he was involved in over the July 4th weekend down in Miami.
Pierre-Paul injured his hand while handling fireworks outside of his home in south Florida. At first, reports were saying the injury could be so severe that he might lose his hand completely. Thankfully updates and reports since then have backed off that and now his hand is expected to recover fully and not be debilitating in anyway for him moving forward on or off the field.
The contract matter though just got a whole lot more murky for the former first round pick of the Giants. The $60 million contract offer is now ancient history as far as the Giants franchise are concerned and now a new deal must be crafted in some form or fashion for both sides to agree to and live with.
The team could put the franchise tag on him for this upcoming season. Pierre-Paul would be paid $14.8 million for this season if he is put under that tag. It would keep him on the field and more importantly, give his people and the Giants front office more time to work out a long term deal that is not rushed into or is not to one side’s liking, thus stalling talks on the whole matter.
New York also has the avenue of rescinding the currently unsigned tender and make him a free agent. That will not come close to happening though as he is viewed as a key piece for that Giants defensive line and for the long term. His production when he has been fully healthy, has been tremendous, with having a 16.5 sack season already under his belt in his career. You cannot just go out and buy production like that in the NFL with paying a very heavy price.
The team and Pierre-Paul have until July 15 to reach a long term deal, but that is looking like a very unlikely prospect now with Pierre-Paul’s state and rehab at the forefront of thoughts right now. Also, details of the actual incident are fuzzy at this moment and the Giants still await a clear and full report on just how he injured his hand with the fireworks.
Once that information is cleared up, I think we will see the next steps in this contract situation pick up and start moving toward some resolution for all parties involved.
Hard to believe that someone would risk $60 million just for maybe ten seconds of excitement and payoff, launching fireworks.
It is a dangerous activity full of risks when you do it incorrectly and unfortunately Pierre-Paul becomes the latest in a very long line of people injuring themselves trying to add some fireworks to their July 4th activities. Fortunately, he will walk away from this fine but his contract situation looks to remain cloudy for the foreseeable future.
