OTAs are over and now there is a break before preseason training camp. It’s a slow time when most football talk revolves around fantasy football, players getting in trouble or having an accident with fireworks. It’s not very exciting, but these weeks are important for the players to keep some of their momentum from OTAs. “Most coaches and most organizations are going to preach about the importance of taking care of yourself during the offseason,” said running back Rashad Jennings. “We all know how important it is to the success of the team. And also, especially for younger guys, I took the opportunity to make all first-year guys – rookies, first-year players – that they experience in their first NFL offseason to have a meeting with some of the veterans.”
As Jennings heads into his eight h season in the NFL, and third with the Giants, the running back realizes he can help his younger teammates get acclimated to life in pro football. “Myself, just to give some advice like how to take care of your body. Remind them that they’ve worked their entire life to get into this position and find themselves in one of these buildings, and how it could be taken away so quick,” Jennings said. “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 take takes the time to make sure’ we’re preaching it in the locker rooms ourselves.”
Giants players will be careful to exercise caution after Jason Pierre-Paul’s fireworks incident last Independence Day. “Yeah, accidents happen. Things happen,” Jennings said. “It’s part of life, we all know that. It’s unfortunate, we can’t rewind the tape, but we can obviously preach what to do in our offseasons, which we’re doing. We trust each other and know that everybody is going to come back with a fire in their eyes because we have a lot to prove and a lot in front of us.”
Head coach Ben McAdoo thought that the players would be better equipped to answer the question of Pierre-Paul’s injury serving as a warning and reminder to the Giants in the offseason, but did say ,“In this business, making good decisions and surrounding yourself around people you respect, admire, and want to be like is important. And also, anything can come around the corner and bite you in the backside in this business, so you always have to have your head on a swivel that way.”
In the two months between July 4 and opening day, the attention the Giants received was dominated by Pierre-Paul. The warnings from McAdoo about how to spend the next weeks ring true after last year’s situation. “Absolutely, because anything can happen,” said linebacker Devon Kennard. “You see crazy things happen around the world all the time, so you have to really be careful around what you are doing, who you are around, and the places you are going because we live in a crazy world, a lot of stuff is going on.”