New York Giants QB Jaxson Dart is now set to miss extended time with a bad knee injury that was even worse than the initial diagnosis. But that initial diagnosis is what has ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky fuming.
On Tuesday, following the news that Dart may have suffered a season-ending injury after the team initially said he was “Okay,” Orlovsky ripped the Giants for their poor communication and the mistake itself. He said it was a bad look for the team to try to calm fears by saying the injury isn’t that bad only to turn around and say that it is.
“My biggest concern is the communication that happened with the Giants, candidly,” Orlovsky said on ESPN yesterday. “I have no idea how you make this mistake. I don’t understand how you can kind of calm some of the fears that a lot of people’s eyes saw and then everyone start to feel like, ‘OK, maybe it’s not going to be that bad,’ and then obviously today is a completely different story.”
Miscommunication?
The controversy stems from comments that New York GM Joe Schoen made to ESPN reporter Laura Rutledge after the injury occurred. Rutledge said that Schoen told her “He’s going to be okay.”
“Another comment I wanted to provide for you guys is that Joe Schoen, the GM of the Giants, just walked past me, his quote to me was, ‘He’s going to be OK,‘” Rutledge reported.
But while many people are now accusing Schoen of having bad information at best and lying at worst, it could also just be a case of Schoen talking about Dart’s emotional state as opposed to his physical state. That’s giving him the benefit of the doubt though. Even if that were the case, Schoen should’ve articulated it better.
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It’s also unlikely since head coach John Harbaugh went up to the podium after the game and expressed confidence that Dart’s injury was more likely a less serious MCL sprain only needing a few weeks rest.
Much like Schoen, Harbaugh had bad intel at best. And the fact that he expressed confidence that it was a minor knee injury certainly supports that.
All in all, a bad week has gotten considerably worse for the Giants.
