New York Giants safety Xavier McKinney hurt himself (and the Giants) this past weekend by inuring his hand in an ATV accident and fans are angry.
They have a right to be. The potential All-Pro will miss the next month and no matter what anyone tells you, it’s gonna hurt the Giants’ defense.
The message from the coaching staff every year is ‘be careful and not make any bad decisions’ and McKinney seems to have violated that, accident or not.
But did he violate his contract?
It is a standard clause in all Giants’ player’s contract that will “immediately become null and void in it’s entirety if … a player becomes unavailable to Club as a result of engaging in any activity which may involve significant risk of personal injury.”
Among those activities is an incident involving an “all-terrain or similar vehicle as a driver or passenger,” which is how McKinney was injured.
McKinney's contract contains a standard clause that his guaranteed salary becomes void if he is unavailable due to being a rider or passenger in an ATV. Not sure this really matters because I can't imagine the Giants are going to cut McKinney over this. But surely can't be happy.
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) November 7, 2022
Will the Giants take action and dock him any pay? Probably not as it’s not a big deal, says former Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes
What is all the fuss about? I love Xavier McKinney the person and player.
He is having a solid year but nothing we will miss in the next couple of weeks. Some people like to make something out of nothing. We are not playing the Chiefs or Bills. Move on. #TogetherBlue
— Lᴀᴡʀᴇɴᴄᴇ Tʏɴᴇs (@lt4kicks) November 7, 2022
Tynes must have a short memory. Wasn’t he around when Plaxico Burress shot himself and derailed the Giants’ chance to repeat in 2012? And what about Chad Jones? Everyone remembers when Jason Pierre-Paul blew his half his hand off, so yes, fans are concerned.
I personally go back longer than most Giants writers/fans and remember the Troy Archer tragedy and even though this recent incident is not as severe as those, it stokes the worst memories for Giant fans. These are unforced errors and, as we know, they usually factor into your downfall.
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