Bellijerk Takes Revenge!

     It's been a long time, so let me re-introduce myself. I'm John Romanski, a huge football fan, and I have had this blog for about 6 or 7 months now. Unfortunately I wasn't able to continue posting due to the huge amount of homework I received during my schooling. But now, I m back and better than ever, with one major change: this blog is now GIANTS ONLY.  I am a huge Giants fan (as you might have guessed from the small amounts of bias in some of my stories), and I enjoy writing about them. I will be providing you with information about all of the happenings in Giants football for (hopefully) a long time to come. So without further adieu, I give you my newest story, "Bellijerk Takes Revenge!" Enjoy!

     This morning the Giants announced that TE Jake Ballard was waived/failed physical due to the torn ACL he suffered in the Super Bowl against the Patriots. This ACL injury would stop Ballard from playing half, if not, all of the 2012 season, so the Giants wanted to design a different contract that would have Ballard take a pay cut from the $540,000 salary he would make. This provided a difficult decision for the Giants: put Ballard on waivers, or keep him on the 90 man roster until they could put him on IR. They decided to take the former, as they could not give up a spot on the 90 man roster to someone who might miss the entire season. Both the Giants and Jake Ballard expressed that they were unconcerned about their future because they new he would be in a Giants uniform. But at about 3 or 4 pm, they received a shocking announcement. Jake Ballard had been taken by the 31st team on the waivers, one before the New York Giants. That team was the New England Patriots.

     If any Giants fan at this point needs to punch a hole in the wall or scream in a pillow, now would be the time to do it..... Go ahead, I'll wait........ Good. Now doesn't that feel better? But wait, there's more. The New England Patriots already had 4 tight ends before the addition of Ballard. So what were they thinking? Are they going to go with a 3 tight end, 1 wide receiver offense now? I mean, come on. No one needs that many tight ends, leading many to believe that this was an addition out of spite: revenge for the Giants beating them in the super bowl. I can't bring myself to think about it that way, but it sure looks bad, doesn't it? And if it's true, it could mean a horrible end to a career for Jake Ballard. He'd miss this entire season and become an exclusive-rights free agent of the New England Patriots. This means they get to offer him a deal to him first, and if he was to sign with another team, they'd get a free draft pick for him. If they keep him, he'd be sitting on a bench behind Gronkowski and Hernandez, two of the best TE in the league. If they let him go, who knows what he'd become. He could become a Giant again, but who knows if he'll be able to fit in the Giants offense again?

     In an effort to explain Belichick's motives, many Patriots fans have brought up that Hernandez' contract runs out soon. This could be an effort to have a backup plan if he decides to leave in favor of more money. But this idea seems a little too far fetched for me. Although Ballard was a good prospect, he doesn't have the size and speed of a top-tier tight end. There is also a rumor going around that there was an unwritten rule in the NFL to not claim guys off waivers in situation's like this, and the Patriots have a bad history with breaking this "rule." In 2010, the Patriots claimed safety Josh Barrett from the Broncos. This caused a lot of anger between the teams due to the fact that the rule is pretty unfair to the team that waives the player. So could the Patriots be taking revenge on the Giants for beating them in the Super Bowl? Although Ballard wasn't an amazing player, he was still a fan favorite that everyone had to like. And who could forget the infamous moment against the Patriots in the regular season when he caught the game-winning pass? Best of luck to Jake Ballard in his future career, and I hope that he returns to the Giants next year. And as for you Bellijerk, I hope that you weren't looking for any sympathy or respect from Giants fans, because you made all of them a lot more angry. Good luck playing us in the future, because I look forward to another win.

 John Romanski