Jason Pierre-Paul's Teammates All Want To See His "Club"

Jason Pierre-Paul is back at Giants practice after signing a contract yesterday, and hopes to play at least half a season after losing parts of two fingers on his right hand in a fireworks accident on July 4. The deal he agreed to seems like a fair one, given the questions over his health and his ability: he’ll get paid if he plays and if he plays well.

First: how are those fingers doing? We got a decent look in the Instagram snap Pierre-Paul posted yesterday.

When JPP showed up to practice, his Giants teammates couldn’t resist trying to sneak a glance at his lil’ piggies.

Did they look? Could they look?

“Of course,” injured cornerback Prince Amukamara said Wednesday. “If you hear something like that, you’re always trying to peek. You don’t want to say, “show me,” or anything like that. I definitely tried to peek. I just try to be nosey.”

His reaction?

“Just never seen anything like that,” he said. “I’ve never seen a hand like that before.”

Pierre-Paul reportedly demonstrated that he could grip a football in his right hand, but coach Tom Coughlin said that’s not why he’s here—and that JPP shouldn’t have to change his tactics all that much. “He’ll use that hand basically as he always has,” Coughlin said, “not necessarily as a grabber but as a club.”

So, about that contract: Pierre-Paul stood to make $14.8 million via the franchise tag, something he strongly resisted before his accident. This incentive-laden deal could theoretically surpass what a prorated franchise tender would have paid, but he’s going to need to rack up more than a sack a game to get it. The figures, from CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora:

So it’s all about the sacks. If he gets 10 (the Giants have nine games remaining, and there’s no word on whether JPP will be ready to play this Sunday), Pierre-Paul will have outflanked the Giants by dodging their doctors and their franchise tender all summer. But that’s a pretty big “if.”