The New York Giants received a major scare on Thursday when highly coveted free agent signing Nate Solder went down with a knee injury while trying to break up a fight between defense tackle Damon Harrison and rookie guard Will Hernandez.
The scuffle, not unusual at this point in the offseason, heightened with Harrison and Hernandez reportedly throwing punches that failed to connect. As the chaos ensued, Solder, the star left tackle the Giants signed away from the New England Patriots this offseason for $62 million, had his right leg rolled up on.
Despite initial fear of a serious knee injury, SNY's Ralph Vacchiano, the New York Post's Paul Schwartz, and NFL.com's Ian Rapoport all reported that a doctor examination determined that he's completely fine. Initially, head coach Pat Shurmur only said “I think he's fine” when asked about Solder's state after practice.
Losing arguably their biggest offseason acquisition (with all due respect to number two overall pick Saquon Barkley) in a freak accident caused by a meaningless fight would've been devastating for a Giants organization hoping to bounce back from a disappointing 2o17 season. Injuries to their talented receiving core and defense, as well as poor offensive line play, led to the popular preseason Super Bowl pick winning just three games just one year after they'd reached the playoffs.
As Vacchiano noted, Solder took the close-call in stride:
“Those things are battles. They happen. Emotions rise,” Solder added. “You work through it and you move on.”
The new head coach wasn't so pleased, per Vacchiano:
“You know what? It's been very competitive the whole camp (but) there's certain things that certainly we can't do,” Shurmur said. “So we've got to settle down. In a situation where scuffles break like that we just take them out of the practice and let them cool off.”
Luckily for New York, this incident can be used as a learning experience rather than a major blow to their 2018 campaign.
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