After a bombshell tweet from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, it now appears there’s a real possibility that the NY Giants, and the rest of the NFL, might not play any preseason games at all.
We’ve spent the last few days here speculating about and covering things like how NY Giants fans won’t be allowed to attend preseason games and what a shame that was.
Now, it looks like there is a legitimate possibility that even the NY Giants players will be shunned from attending – aka playing – in any preseason games after ESPN’s Adam Schefter dropped a tweet Monday night stating that the NFL has given the NFLPA the option to decide on the matter.
NFL offered the NFLPA today to play zero preseason games this summer, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 20, 2020
This tweet is stunning, to say the least, as in a normal year the NFL and its owners look at preseason games as an extra influx of cash where they don’t even have to pay the players (most NFL player contracts include no preseason games played clauses and work off workout/signing/roster/regular-season games played bonuses).
As we know though, this is no normal year, and with no NY Giants fans allowed to attend preseason games – a decision that will almost certainly be leaguewide – the owners and NFL have little cash to gain which changes everything.
Combined the money angle with mitigating the risk of a preseason COVID outbreak – which is a real possibility, and would ruin the season – and you then you can really understand why this groundbreaking offer has been made.
The real question is, how will the players feel about it, which is a very complex question.
How will the NY Giants organization take to this possibility?
We can pretty much assume that Dave Gettleman and Joe Judge were gasped for air when they heard about this, as the NY Giants are a rebuilding team with a whole new coaching staff that you can bet wants to get every last look it can at all of its players – especially the younger ones – in real-time action.
For NY Giants fans and the organization alike, if this proposal went through, it could have devastating and lasting effects on the team.
Even though players have been saying for years they don’t want any, or at least to have less, preseason games, 2020 is a different animal and the players saying that were mostly of the established, guaranteed money in hand variety.
Hopefully, the NY Giants players will speak up loudly, as even if those players aren’t Daniel Jones or Saquon Barkley who have their spots set in stone, they should be thinking about their fellow teammates that are itching for the chance to prove what they can do to set their families up for life.
For every Saquon or ‘DJ’ on this team, there are ten Binjimen Victor’s who are trying to rise from the ranks of a promising undrafted player to making the regular-season roster.
Even if the team leaders – who may not even get to be identified without preseason – can’t relate to that situation personally, they should be able to sympathize and see that playing these games is the best thing for the NY Giants organization.