Jake Ballard’s departure to New England Patriots surprises New York Giants – NFL News
The developments around the case of Jake Ballard are emerging at a rather quick pace.
At first, the player failed to clear New York Giants’ physical and was placed on waivers. Ballard had sustained an injury during the Super Bowl XLVI matchup against the New England Patriots and he is expected to miss the entire 2012 season.
The Giants waived him hoping that no other team would be interested in him and the player would clear the waivers to stay with Giants for the next season on their PUP/reserve list.
As soon as Ballard was waived, the Pats surprisingly claimed him off waivers, crushing Giants hopes of getting him back.
Giants head coach Tom Coughlin is really disappointed over Ballard’s departure. The head coach said of the situation:
"Discouraged is a minor description. Very disappointing. I am not going to have a lot to say about that one, just the fact that we are disappointed. We are very disappointed."
The Giants knew that if they waived Ballard he could be claimed by any other team, but for them it was a ‘calculated risk’ that did not pay off.
Although the Pats did not break any rule by claiming Ballard, some observers are bringing them under the line of fire for the move.
Meanwhile, Patriots coach Bill Belichick has shrugged off all such reports saying that it is the nature of the business.
“If a player's on waivers, he's on waivers. Ours or anybody else's. I don't know what 'unwrittens' you're talking about. Look, anytime you put a player on waivers, you know there's 31 teams that can take him. We all know that, there's no secrets about that."
Furthermore, Giants general manager Jerry Reese has also said that he expected Ballard to clear the waivers and that he did not know that the Pats would claim him.
However, Reese has maintained that the Giants do not hold any grudge against Patriots as he is also aware of the nature of the business.
For Ballard, the 2012 might not be a different one with the Pats as well as he has to stay on the sidelines to nurse his injury.
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