Jason Pierre-Paul hasn’t stayed in touch with his teammates over the last week, after the fireworks accident which cost him a finger.
But one of his former teammates had some harsh words for the injured defensive end.
Former Giants guard David Diehl said during an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio that he questioned Pierre-Paul’s professionalism, specifically in not letting them visit him in the hospital.
“Denying the New York Giants access because technically you’re not under contract,” Diehl said via NJ.com, “it’s almost a slap in the face to the New York Giants, because of everything they’ve done for you up until this point.”
Of course, Pierre-Paul probably feels the same way about the Giants pulling the long-term contract offer which had been on the table, upon the news of the injury.
But Diehl — who was being interviewed before news broke that Pierre-Paul lost a finger — then referenced the conditioning test teams give at the beginning of training camp.
“Because they want to see how committed you were when you were away from the building, and now that you’re back, did you work during that time, and are you committed, even though nobody was sitting there watching you?” Diehl said. “This is his sixth year. This isn’t his rookie year. If they feel, and if you need somebody to watch you [during the offseason] going into your sixth year, because of immaturity, yeah, that’s throwing up red flags for everybody all around, that: Why would you invest that long-term deal into somebody that you’re not 100 percent confident that, day in and day out, they’re going to punch the clock, and they’re going to punch in in the morning, and when they leave at the end of the day, they’re not the first guys leaving.”
The Giants obviously felt good enough about Pierre-Paul to put the franchise tag on him, guaranteeing him $14.8 million for a single season. And with most players rallying around Pierre-Paul or expressing concern for his physical condition, it was a curious time for Diehl to rip a guy who he played with for four years.
