Giants: Steep Climb AHead for Will Hill

Fool me once, we’ll give you another shot.  Fool me again – and we really have some thinking to do.

I have been a major proponent of Will Hill since he offiicially joined the Giants in May 2012 as an undrafted free agent from the Arena Football League. He had previously tried out for the Giants in 2011, but wasn’t picked up until a year later.

I first saw him interviewed prior to camp last year, when he shared about his commitment to hard work and being a team player.  He shared about how fortunate he felt to have this opportunity in his life, and he wasn’t going to mess it up.  I didn’t see him embedded in Twitter feeds.  I didn’t hear much, but I did see a kid working hard to prove he could make an impact.  During the 2012 season, his special teams work and tackling in the 3rd Safety position showed energy and promise.  He played in 12 games.  He missed 4…

With the season off to a solid start for Hill, it was very disappointing to receive the news of a surprise, 4-game Adderall suspension announced in October.  At the time it was said that there was a missed filing of paperwork, since Hill had a doctor’s prescription for Adderall prior to signing with the Giants.

Adderall is a drug most often prescribed by doctors to address narcolepsy – a sleep disorder, and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).  In recent years, we’ve seen numerous Adderall suspensions popping up in professional sports – often hearing athletes claiming to use the drug to help with focus and, some say, to calm the nerves.

Oddly, I have also read in places that some users take Adderall to get a similar, and even more potent effect as the one we all might remember from college – you know, when in the middle of the night NoDoz was the only thing getting us through writing that term paper or studying for the final? I don’t know about you, but I never quite got a ‘calming’ effect when I took NoDoz, (but I was pretty amped up)…

And so today, July 19, 2013, 7 days prior to Giants training camp, we have learned of a SECOND drug-related suspension for Will Hill.  Some say Adderall. Some say it may be something else – some other ‘substance’.  All I can say is this: last year he said he didn’t let the league know about his prescription in time before signing with the Giants.

This year – there really is no excuse.

Coincidentally, yesterday morning on the Internet radio show Big Blue Kickoff, I asked Giants reporter Paul Dottino to remind me how many DBs we would be likely to keep after camp.  Right now we seem to have 18 going into camp between Safety and Cornerback.  Paul reminded that we kept 9 last year, and typically will go with 5 at Corner and 4 at Safety.  Will Hill had a spot on my pre-camp, 2013 team predictions.

Antrel Rolle, Stevie Brown, former Steeler FA Ryan Mundy (getting very good looks during OTAs), Rookie Cooper Taylor, Tyler Sash, Laron Scott, and a few other UFAs are all being looked at in the Safety spot.  To me, it appears as though there will only be one or two spots to compete for assuming Rolle and Stevie Brown are starters.  Terrell Thomas has also been mentioned as a possible Safety, and we have high hopes he will have a strong camp after 2 injury-plagued seasons.

There really is no excuse for a second situation with any type of PED or misuse of a drug, except to say that maybe there’s a deeper problem here.  I hope that whatever this turns out to be (and I’m not here to judge), Will gets the help and support he may need to move beyond this in his life – regardless of the game.  Because unfortunately, he is now going to need to look like a training camp rock star to grab one of those very few spots.

It’s been way too dramatic an off-season for my comfort-level as a Giants fan, I must admit.

More soon…

Ali

@aliconig