New York Giants wide receiver Sterling Shepard doesn’t fully understand how his ACL ended up torn against the Dallas Cowboys, but he refuses to let it get him down.
Despite the injury, Shepard has remained a constant presence in and around the Giants. He was visibly elated when the team picked up their third win of the season last week against the Chicago Bears.
Shep is all of us rn: pic.twitter.com/PjamgSqpud
— New York Giants (@Giants) October 2, 2022
“Just because I’m going down doesn’t mean I need to have a cloud over my head and bring everybody else down,” Shepard told reporters on Wednesday. “I think it’s big for me, being one of the veteran guys in this locker room, to help the guys in any way I can — whether that’s helping them with route technique or just to hype them up. I like to be around the guys.”
Shepard will remain around the team until he undergoes his ACL surgery, which should come at some point next week. In the mean time, he intends to travel with the Giants to London where they’ll take on the Green Bay Packers.
What comes after that is anyone’s guess but Shepard is certain about one thing: Retirement isn’t an option. Instead, he’s going to fight like he always does because he believes he’s got another return in him.
“Dang right. I’m a fighter,” he said. “So, I want to go out on my own terms. I don’t want something like this to make me go out. So, I’m going to fight to get my body back to where I can perform and get this thing good.”
That may or may not come with the Giants, but that’s something else Shepard refuses to concern himself with. He’s appreciative of the organization for giving him another shot after his ruptured Achilles and feels like he owes it to them to battle back one more time.
“They mean a lot to me. They didn’t have to give me another shot to come back off that Achilles, and they did. And I can’t thank this staff and ownership enough for the opportunities that they’ve given me,” he said. “And I feel like I owe so much to them. I want to give them my all; I don’t want to go out like this. So, like I said: I’m going to fight. I’m a fighter. So, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Shepard can’t do anything for the Giants on the field at the moment, but he certainly can help them recruit. Which is precisely what he did earlier this week when Odell Beckham Jr. left his vacation in the Bahamas to come visit Shep in East Rutherford.
“It meant a lot to me. That’s one of my brothers,” Shepard said. “He’s done that a number of times, flying from wherever he is. He was in the Bahamans, but he wanted to come see me. But I was happy to see his face; I hadn’t seen him in a while. But it was great seeing him.”
And the recruitment? Shepard paused and took a look at the Giants’ public relations team, making sure he didn’t say anything to cause waves.
“We didn’t do anything illegal,” Shepard said with a laugh.
