YA GOTTA HAND IT TO HIM
JPP persevered like few others would have after accident
HE WAS the best damn 7 ¹/₂-fingered defensive end you will ever see, a kid from South Florida who seduced former GM Jerry Reese with his pre-draft back flips.
He was a Giant story of inspiration, coming back against all odds from that reckless July 4, 2015, firecracker incident that would cost most t heir football careers, and could have cost him his life, coming back with a club over his disfigured hand and still chasing the quarterback.
He was the latest in a line of pass rushers who were instrumental in the Giants hounding and hitting Tom Brady and winning Super Bowls XLII and XLVI, from Michael Strahan to Osi Umenyiora to Justin Tuck to Jason Pierre-Paul.
And out of the blue, out of Big Blue, he is no longer a Giant. JPP is a Buc, for a thirdround draft choice, some financial relief and a swap of fourth-rounders.
Fireworks out of East Rutherford. Fireworks that blew up the top of the NFL draft, and immediately moved defensive end Bradley Chubb to the top of GM Dave Gettleman’s board.
Pierre-Paul is the son of Haitian immigrants who came to the States in 1983, the son of a father who is legally blind.
“My father was always committed even though he couldn’t see,” Pierre-Paul once said. “That’s just the background I come from. You always stay committed and try to get things done no matter what your situation is. My family showed me how to survive through tough times.”
He referred to himself as a “rare breed,” and he sure was. He was a freak, even before the accident. He was hell on wheels against Tony Romo, his favorite quarterback to sack, and the Cowboys, ruining one night in 2011 for Jerry Jones when he blocked a 47-yard Dan Bailey field goal with one second left.
There was a leaping, 28-yard pick-six against Romo for his first career TD. There was a pick-six against Scott Tolzien at MetLife Stadium in 2013, that monster three-sack, one forced fumble, one fumble return for a touchdown in Cleveland in 2016. There was that three-sack game against the Broncos last season, when he did a dance he had promised to a 7-year-old boy with cancer. After which JPP wrote on Instagram, “Keep fighting, buddy.”
When he recorded 16.5 sacks in 2011, he seemed to be on his way to becoming this generation’s Lawrence Taylor. But a series of nagging injuries — back, shoulder and that horrific life-changing July 4— compromised him. He leaves with 58.5 sacks.
J PP, t he last remaining defens i ve member of Super Bowl XLVI, displayed his heart when he returned with those 7 ¹/₂ f i ngers with a stirring performance against all odds in Tampa, only four months after his accident, with his family and infant son in the stands. “Play every play like it’s your last play because it can be taken away from you,” he told his defensive teammates before the game. “It was almost taken away from me. I was at home, lonely.” The Giants stood by him and rewarded him with the long-term deal — four years, $62 million, $40 million guaranteed — that he so badly wanted and had nearly blown when he blew off half his right hand. “This is where I wanted to be,” PierrePaul said in a press release at the time. “I couldn’t imagine me being anywhere else.” He believed it was his responsibility to serve as an inspiration. “I just think it’s important for anybody to be an inspiration, because people look up to you,” he told me late in 2015. “Whether you think they don’t or not, they do.” He never tried to hide his mangled hand from teammates, from reporters, from anyone, was never ashamed of how it looked. “Even the doctors counted me out,” he told me once. He never counted himself out. Giants never do.