By Jack Ryan
According to a report from ESPN’s Dan Graziano, the New York Giants got a chance to examine Jason Pierre-Paul’s fireworks-torn hand for themselves and are worried that the injury is worse than initially thought and could keep him out for the season.
This is because the team didn’t know how many fingers he really had before the exam took place last Monday.
Here’s Graziano:
One source said that, in addition to the missing right index finger, fractured thumb and skin grafts — injuries suffered in a July 4 fireworks accident — a portion of one of the other fingers on Pierre-Paul’s right hand is missing.
For those of you keeping count at home, this is now at least 2 cumulative fingers, assuming that the quasi-missing thumb in the first photos of his bandaged up hand is actually quasi-missing.
JPP avoided the Giants until now to prevent them from putting him on the preseason Non-Football Injury List, which would have prevented him from playing or getting paid until Week 7. Pierre-Paul still has the Giants’ franchise tender on the table, but there is no incentive for him to sign it while the Giants could put him on the Non-Football Injury List, which would keep him out all year sans money. His franchise tender is worth $871,000 per game, so he is not going to go for that.
So he will wait until he’s healthy to sign, and could take a pro-rated franchise contract from the Giants. He could be ready before then, as his avoidance of the six week dead period of the preseason Non-Football Injury List would indicate. But with the amount of fingers on his right hand still a mystery, it’s not guaranteed.
