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Shortly after the New York Giants agreed to terms with veteran tight end Kyle Rudolph, it was discovered during a physical that he had a foot injury requiring surgery.
Following a very brief delay, the Giants decided to honor their agreement and sign Rudolph to a two-year, $12 million deal.
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“We are the Giants, we’re going to do everything with class,” general manager Dave Gettleman said in April. “We had an agreement, Ronnie [Barnes] signed off on it, Doc [Scott] Rodeo signed off on it, so we were fine.”
“Once he went through all the medical evaluations, we didn’t think that [changing the contract] was necessary,” assistant general manager Kevin Abrams said.
Rudolph underwent surgery not long after his contract was signed and told the New York Daily News in early July that he wouldn’t miss any football.
“As far as football goes, I was extremely fortunate that the Giants organization and everyone involved [caught it], and how they were able to handle my situation, that I won’t miss any football,” Rudolph said. “At this point it’s about taking each day and taking that opportunity to not only get myself healthy but get myself better. It’s one thing to get and be healthy, it’s another to be ready to go and play in an NFL game. So I’m taking that day by day.”
As training camp opened, Rudolph was placed on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list where he remains to this day. He has not participated in practice with his teammates and hasn’t even done any side work.
In reality, Rudolph seems a long way off from returning which leads to some very legitimate questions. Additional questions and concerns were raised this week when Gettleman allegedly misspoke during his training camp press conference.
“We knew about [the injury] all along,” Gettleman said. “We didn’t go into this blind. Do you think I do this for a hobby? We knew it. We’re fine.”
Asked specifically if the Giants knew Rudolph needed surgery, Gettleman said, “yeah.”
“Like I said with injuries, he’ll get healthy when he’s healthy. He’s working his fanny off. We’ll see what happens,” Gettleman added.
Shortly after Gettleman’s press conference, he and the Giants clarified the comments, stating they had knowledge of Rudolph’s previous injury but not the timeline regarding surgery. In fact, they went so far as to break down the chronology from start to finish.
“We honored the agreement because our doctors were confident Kyle would be fine following the procedure,” Gettleman said in his clarified comments.
Video of Gettleman’s exchange with reporters has since been removed from the team’s website.
The issue becomes Rudolph’s status as the 2021 regular-season nears. If he’s unable to pass his physical and come off the PUP list, he will automatically miss the first six games of the season.
That’s not something the Giants can afford on the field or off of it.
Rudolph still has a couple weeks to find some level of health and return to the field before this becomes a full-blown controversy, but the clock is ticking and so far, it has not reflected well on Gettleman, Abrams or the Giants.
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