New York Giants: Can Jason Pierre-Paul persevere?

Jason Pierre-Paul of the New York Giants has himself in an awful situation after losing his right index finger in a fireworks accident.

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While the injury isn’t life-threatening for Pierre-Paul, it will affect him on the field according to former New York Jets’ defensive end Joe Klecko. As part of the New York Sack Exchange, Klecko had a great career, and knows what it takes to be an elite defensive lineman.

“He’s not gonna come back and be dominant very quickly, I don’t think. I really don’t believe that at all,” Klecko told Steve Serby of The New York Post.

Pierre-Paul will hopefully be playing his sixth season in the NFL in 2015, and he has shown that he can be one of the best defensive lineman in football. In five seasons, Pierre-Paul has totaled 42 sacks, eight forced fumbles, and four fumble recoveries. Pierre-Paul has already overcame back surgery in his career which really limited him in 2013. Last season, Pierre-Paul rebounded by totaling 12.5 sacks.

When asked about if Pierre-Paul could be dominant again, Klecko had this to say:

“I think he could … losing his appendage like that, I don’t think it’ll be very easy, I really don’t,” Klecko said to Serby. “I’m the kind of guy that I would think I could do anything like that, but I don’t think that would be easy. Not at all.

“I think it’s all up to him — how hard he works on it, and how hard he can get through the mental anguish of it. And it’s gonna be. Because when he’s healed, he’s not gonna be able to do it the way he did it before. He’s gonna have to reteach himself.”

It is going to be a challenging road back for Pierre-Paul, but he can certainly still be a great defensive lineman in NFL.

“You were God’s gift to football, the way he was headed,” Klecko said to Serby. “My God, his range of motion, his physical ability, it’s gonna be taken away from him for a long while until he gets it back. He’s gonna have to have a great intestinal fortitude to get back to being that tough defensive lineman that he was.”

It is a very sad accident for Pierre-Paul, who despite being affected on the football field, the rest of his life will be drastically different. Losing any appendage is an unimaginable thing to go through, and Pierre-Paul will have to overcome likely the greatest challenge of his life.

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