Gano to have surgery

[Dumpster Dan]

Spot on.

Remember, this guy is an All Pro and holds himself to a ridiculously high standard above your average, run of the mill, NFL kicker (if that term is appropriate, which all 32 would tell me it isn't).

He did the right thing by electing to go on IR and have the surgery now so he'll be ready for next season. That's about all he can do and it is unfortunate that it came to that in the first place. In my opinion, it is no different than me going in, this past May, for a total knee replacement (NOTE: my planting leg). Six months on, I completed all my rehab, and I'm going at the world with this thing; albeit, limited than my original knee because of its mechanical limits. Let's hope Gano doesn't have to deal with any of that.

Peace!

Nice try Lawrence for going to bat for a fellow kicker--I believe Gano got most of his extension guaranteed.

Having said that I am sorry about Gano--for most of the season he has been one of a few bright spots

Dumpster Dan

[Ed Vette]

Nice try Lawrence for going to bat for a fellow kicker--I believe Gano got most of his extension guaranteed.

Having said that I am sorry about Gano--for most of the season he has been one of a few bright spots

Dumpster Dan

Yes, his 2023 and 2024 salary plus his 2024 roster bonus and signing bonus fully guaranteed.

[kingm56]

Nice try Lawrence for going to bat for a fellow kicker--I believe Gano got most of his extension guaranteed.

Having said that I am sorry about Gano--for most of the season he has been one of a few bright spots

Dumpster Dan

Spot on, Dumpster.  Pro Players are also not wired differently; lots of people push themselves to keep thier jobs...that's called life.  They push themselves because the notoriety, and cheers from thousands of fans is a drug they don't want to give up. 

[BlueMoshik]

Really annoying. The Giants win that game against the Jets if they have a functioning kicker. I don't understand the mindset of knowingly playing an injured player who can decide games.

[DaveBrown74]

Spot on, Dumpster.  Pro Players are also not wired differently; lots of people push themselves to keep thier jobs...that's called life.  They push themselves because the notoriety, and cheers from thousands of fans is a drug they don't want to give up. 

King,

I fully agree with this in spirit, and broadly speaking I think it's 100% true.

However, I think some roles in sports are different from others, and some injuries are different from others. If you perform a role where you do basically just one thing, but you need to have full range of motion and full use of your body to do it, that's different from say a defensive end or RB playing through some pain. The margin for error is bigger in the latter. In other words, an elite defensive end who has a mild sprained ankle or some sort of knee pain is going to play through that. He may only be 80%, but at 80% he is still a value-add for the team and still superior to whatever player would replace him if he sat. Barkley is also an example of a player who does this routinely.

A kicker at 80% is not good enough though, even if he's normally a very good kicker. Especially when the injury is on the plant leg. And btw I doubt Gano was even 80%. Let me be very clear - I am not really faulting Gano on this. Athletes are conditioned to be tough and determined and to want to do whatever it takes to help their team, and it's human nature for someone like that to believe he can play through an injury. And nobody wants to be the guy who isn't available in a huge game. I just think the team could have hedged its bets a little bit more. It wouldn't have been difficult or costly in any way to bring a Randy Bullock type in in the middle of last week for insurance. They knew Gano had an injury in his plant leg. Yes, he said he felt fine. Still, why not bring another kicker in, just in case? What happens if Gano wakes up on Sunday AM and suddenly it feels worse? What was their plan for that?

[MightyGiants]

If there is fault to be found, I will point the finger at ST Coach Thomas McGaughey Jr.  Kickers produce very visible results that can be seen in practice, it can be seen in warmups, and it can be seen in any sort of tests the team devises.  If the kicker was up to a sloppy low low-scoring game where a FG could be the margin between winning or losing, the ST coach should have been the one to make the call on how ready his kicker is.

[MightyGiants]

https://x.com/TheGiantsWire/status/1720479592836977142?s=20