Giants defensive lineman Jason Pierre-Paul opens up about family, fans and the July 4 fireworks accident that cost mangled his hand and threatened his career.
Q: Tell me about your Josiah’s personality?
A: I think he has a personality of me and my girl.
Q: Who is he more like?
A: He’s more of like the mother.
Q: In what way?
A: He’s quiet … keeps to himself … very funny.
Q: Tell me about the day he was born, Dec. 12 last year.
A: I was at practice. I got a phone call my son was being born. I ran, and just when I got there, it was just a totally different feeling.
Q: How are you going to celebrate his 1-year-old birthday next week?
A: Just throw him a little get-together party. We’ll have some nieces and nephews.
Q: Has fatherhood changed you at all?
A; It’s changed me a lot. I don’t think about myself anymore, it’s all about my son at the end of the day.
Q: How are you at diaper changing?
A: I’m OK. I’ve changed my sister’s diapers a couple of times, but that’s really the Mom thing.
Q: He hasn’t started walking yet, has he?
A: Yeah, he started.
Q: When did he start?
A: Like three weeks ago.
Q: What was that like watching him walk?
A: It was awesome, you know? They’re not up here with me, they’re in Florida. But it was awesome just to see him fall, and get back up, and try it again.
Q: Does he say Dada?
A: Yeah, he says Mama and Dada.
Q: Would you let him play football one day if he wanted to?
A: If he wants to yeah. I’m not gonna force him to.
Q: What would you want him to know about his father?
A: I’m a fighter, I guess. I’m a survivor.
Q: How so?
A: I can handle anything.
Q: More so than before?
A: Yeah.
Q: Did you learn something about yourself that you didn’t know?
A: It takes a lot to bring me down.
Q: Are you proud of yourself for that?
A: Yeah I’m proud.
Q: How did you meet your fiancée, Farraw?
A: Through a mutual friend.
Q: Was it love at first sight?
A: Nope. No it wasn’t (laugh).
Q: How did you propose?
A: Actually, I proposed to her the day before my birthday, New Year’s Eve.
Q: How did you do it though?
A: It was smooth, man.
Q: Smooth how?
A: In a casual way.
Q: At a restaurant?
A: I know it was at a restaurant, but I don’t know what restaurant it was. With friends and family.
Q: Was she surprised?
A: Yeah, she definitely was.
Q: You said that you are a rare breed? In what way?
A: As far as talent. Knowing what to do with it. I came back from multiple injuries, but this one here is one of the top ones or whatever but just to do what I could do and being able to contribute to my team is what I call a rare breed.
Q: How much did you miss the camaraderie of the locker room and of the guys?
A: I missed certain players, but just being around the whole team makes you feel good.
Q: You said that you never said, “Why me?” Why?
A: Everything in life happens for a reason, man. You got people that catch cancer, you know what I mean? You don’t know because what’s the reason. So you can’t just sit here and feel sorry for yourself, you know? You gotta move on.
Q: Do you think, or hope, that you’re an inspiration to others?
A: I know I am. It’s not think or hope, I know I am.
Q: How do you know?
A: I get daily things in my inbox, emails, fan emails, Fanpage. And I take the time to read it. It’s very touching if people take time to read what people are going through. You’re fine, you’ll look at the world much differently, you know?
Q: What’s the most touching thing you’ve gotten?
A: It was a guy, I forgot his name, but he had the same exact accident like me or whatever, and he lost nearly all his fingers.
Q: All his fingers on one hand?
A: Yeah, he just had a thumb. It just makes you realize that you’re blessed, and just keep on going about your daily life.
Q: How did he contact you?
A: By Direct Message.
Q: Did you get back to him?
A: Yeah, I got back to him.
Q: What did you tell him?
A: I basically told him my story, and I’m pretty sure everybody knew my story. And I told him that we’ll get together in the offseason, and do a couple of things, whatever.
Q: Why do you think it’s important for you to be an inspiration?
A: I just think it’s important for anybody to be an inspiration, because people look up to you. Whether you think they don’t or not, they do.
Q: When the incident first happened, how scary was it for you?
A: It wasn’t scary at all. I just went straight to the hospital. Didn’t panic, no nothing, I just went straight to the hospital.
Q: You knew right away that you had to go?
A: Yeah.
Q: Who took you there?
A: One of my friends took me there.
Q: How painful was it?
A: It wasn’t painful at all. It was no pain, no nothing at the time. I was just like, “I gotta get my hand treated.”
Q: Was there a lot of blood?
A: Yeah, I think it was. I lost a lot of blood, yeah.
Q: If you lost a lot of blood, why wouldn’t you be scared?
A: I see too many movies, man (chuckle). I wasn’t in shock or nothing. I just lost a lot of blood.
Q: And when you got to the hospital, you went right to the emergency room?
A: Yeah ER.
Q: ER?
A: Yeah. Then I passed out.
Q: You passed out?
A: Yeah. I just told the doctor not to cut my hand and passed out.
Q: How long did you pass out for?
A: Probably a couple days, man. I was in and out a couple of days.
Q: Why did you tell the doctor not to cut your hand?
A: It’s easier to take a shortcut out. I knew for a fact that my hand … I might say it’s severely damaged or whatever, but I knew it wasn’t that bad, like I can still play football.
Q: When you said you told the doctor not to cut your hand, you mean the whole hand?
A: Yeah.
Q: You were afraid that he would cut the whole hand off?
A: Yeah. Even the doctors counted me out. They were like, “Yeah, we’re gonna have to cut his whole hand off” and, you know …
Q: Before you passed out, that’s what you heard them saying?
A: Yeah. “I don’t think we’ll be able to save it.” I knew that that wasn’t the best hospital to be at.
Q: When you woke up, what was your reaction to what they told you had to be done?
A: To be continued, man.
Q: Come on, we’re live on CNN right now, come on.
A: No we’re not. That’s a story I’m gonna give at the end of the season. That’s a big story right there.
Q: I know, so let’s get it over with.
A: Nope, ’cause it’s supposed to be about football.
Q: Back to football?
A: Yeah.
Q: What’s the frame of mind of this team?
A: Everybody’s good. We gotta win the game.
Q: Are you ready to get your first sack?
A: We’ll see Sunday.
Q: You had a good week of practice?
A: Great week.
Q: Because of the new stance?
A: No. Just confidence is very high.
Q: Your confidence is very high.
A: Yeah.
Q: How about this team’s confidence?
A: Very high.