Gettleman fumbles, then Fixes, details on Rudolph
Dave Gettleman misspoke in a bizarre scene on Tuesday and said that the Giants had known tight end Kyle Rudolph needed surgery before the team negotiated his original contract and gave him a physical in March.
What actually happened is that the Giants knew Rudolph had a foot injury from last season in Minnesota. They agreed to an initial free agent contract. And then the Giants gave him a physical and decided he needed surgery.
The Giants then honored the original contract agreement, rather than altering it with incentives.
“It’s kind of a blessing that we’re able to find this issue,” Rudolph said in March.
“We honored the agreement because our doctors were confident Kyle would be fine following the procedure,” Gettleman clarified in a statement through a team spokesman hours after Tuesday’s press conference.
When Gettleman was at the podium on Tuesday morning, however, he insisted the Giants were aware of Rudolph’s need for surgery even before the physical and original contract terms.
He was asked if he had any second thoughts about not restructuring Rudolph’s contract once the Giants discovered the injury, given that Rudolph now appears unlikely to be ready for the start of the regular season.
“No, we knew about it all along,” Gettleman said.
The GM knew about it before Rudolph took his physical?
“Kyle’s injury? Yeah, we didn’t go into this blind,” Gettleman said.
The Giants knew he needed
surgery, though? “Yeah,” Gettleman said. So when they agreed to terms, they knew Rudolph was going to be on the PUP list and out for a “lengthy” time?
“Yeah, do you think I do this for a hobby?” Gettleman said.
But everyone thought it was discovered during the physical.
“No, no, we’re good,” Gettleman said. “We knew it.”
The Giants later said Gettleman had been pressed on the team’s knowledge of Rudolph’s previous injury, not the surgery timeline.
This is the second time recently that the GM has had to be corrected publicly by someone affiliated with the team after speaking, though.
Last week, Gettleman told SiriusXM NFL Radio that rookie edge rusher Elerson Smith (hamstring) had “pulled a ham on the conditioning run.”
Head coach Joe Judge, told of that characterization the next day, said: “It was absolutely not a lap or a conditioning test of that nature. That’s not what happened at all.”
The Giants frequently now send Gettleman to the podium either alongside another executive or on the same day as another high-profile team official, such as Tuesday’s John Mara press conference that immediately followed the GM.
Rudolph hasn’t practiced all summer, despite telling the Daily News in June that he wasn’t going to miss any regular season football.
The Giants signed him to a two-year, $12 million contract in March with $7 million guaranteed, including a $4.5 million signing bonus.
He carries a $4.75 million salary cap hit this season with a $2.5 million base salary.