Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul is almost a year removed from the horrifying fireworks accident that nearly ruined his football career.
Now, he serves as a lesson for players this time of year as they depart for a five-week vacation that so often racks the nerves of football coaches and general managers. A group of veteran Giantsmade that clear this week, meeting with the team's youngest players before break.
"Remind them that they've worked their entire life to get to this position and find themselves in one of these buildings, and how it could be taken away so quick," Rashad Jennings said, via The New York Post. "You know, take advantage of it. It goes a long way when you hear it from players more so than coaches, so we have some veteran leadership that took the time to make sure we're preaching it in the locker room ourselves."
In a seperate post on Instagram, Pierre-Paul hammered home the point, writing "Just know I REMEMBER, and I will never FORGET!!!
It's impossible to overstate how tense this time of year is for coaches, this at a juncture when they should be decompressing before the start of the season. Over the last few years, we've seen countless mistakes made once players are away from the watchful eye of coaches, executives and team personnel. We've also seen countless efforts to combat it. Once, in a Jets locker room I witnessed then-offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo giving players a packet with his work cell, personal cell and home phone number. The kicker? He included his wife's cell phone number just in case there were any emergencies during which he couldn't immediately be reached.
Pierre-Paul considers himself one of the lucky ones, and doesn't want to see that happen again.By Conor Orr
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