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What a wild ride it has been for Jason Pierre-Paul, both in life and on the football field.
Nine years removed from from a dominating performance against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI, JPP is now headed back to The Big Game, this time as a teammate of Tom Brady’s with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Pierre-Paul and the Bucs defense hounded Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers on Sunday afternoon, sacking the likely NFL MVP five times. JPP recorded two of those, while Shaquil Barrett was credited with three.
JPP thought an additional half a sack belonged to him.
“He got three?” Pierre-Paul said, via The New York Post. “I thought it was two and a half. I thought I got a half on that sack. I [have] got to look at that, man.”
It was a fun moment for JPP, who has endured a seemingly countless number of injuries — many of which threatened his career.
Those injuries include the loss of several fingers on his right hand as the result of a fireworks accident in 2015. It was such a severe injury that by all account, JPP should not be playing football anymore. Instead, it ended up costing him just eight games that season and has done little to derail his production since.
Then, prior to the 2019 season, Pierre-Paul was involved in a car accident that left him with a fractured neck. Again, JPP’s career was in doubt but this time around, he missed just six games before making a return.
“I keep saying ‘Look where we’re at,’ but look where we’re at,” Pierre-Paul said, via Newsday. “Look where I’m at.”
The 32-year-old is at the point in his career where he’s now played in more games since his fireworks accident than he had played prior to it. He’s approaching two years removed from his broken neck and now he’s headed back to the Super Bowl after a 9.5-sack, 2-interception performance during the regular season.
JPP’s resurgence doesn’t exactly look good for the Giants or general manager Dave Gettleman, who traded him for a third-round pick in 2018 (and a swap of fifth-round picks). It’s clear now that Pierre-Paul had plenty of juice left in the tank and the Giants simply got it wrong.
“Winning a Super Bowl with the Giants and the trade from the Giants, I was probably at the peak of my career, was hard,” Pierre-Paul said. “But at the end of the day, we [have] got a job to do. I think Jason [Licht, Buccaneers general manager] did a great job believing in me and bringing me here to Tampa, and look where we’re at right now. Look where I’m at. It never stopped me. My grind is tremendous. I just keep going. I have a motor that never stops.”
With one more win, JPP will become a two-time Super Bowl champion against literally all odds.
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