This was supposed to be the “downtime” in the NFL calendar, the period where the only ripple of news was about a player starting a new foundation, getting married, welcoming a new child, catching a fish or holding a football camp.
Yeah, well so much for head coaches' good intentions and wishes everywhere who, when they send their players off for the break prior to training camp, hope those players don’t generate any kind of bad news.
Unfortunately for the New York Giants, defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul's unfortunate Independence Day accident involving the handling of fireworks has not only put him in the news for all the wrong reasons, it has cast a shadow over last year’s 29th-ranked defense that was looking to rejuvenate under returning defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.