The clash between the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers on Sunday is set to feature one extremely motivated kicker. Veteran Graham Gano, who is now playing for the Giants, badly wants to get one over his former team, and it isn’t just because they released him in 2020.
During a recent chat with The Athletic, Gano revealed that the Panthers misdiagnosed his leg injury back in 2018 and that he missed the following season because of this. The 34-year-old also hinted that he believes the wrong diagnosis also put his career in danger.
“I was told initially it was tendinitis and a bone bruise, and it was actually a lot more than that, which we knew for a while,” Gano said. “I was treating it, and I came back and had the same injury, actually worse than before.”
According to Gano, he was actually dealing with a broken femur, which caused him to miss the final four weeks of the 2018 season. He then reinjured it during training camp and had to have a season-ending procedure despite being cleared to play by the Panthers’ medical staff.
“They were telling me it was still fine,” he added. “Obviously, it was not. So I had the surgery, and it went from them telling me there was nothing wrong with my leg to I need a major surgery.”
Gano never kicked again for Carolina as the franchise released him ahead of the 2020 NFL season. He ended up signing with the Giants shortly after and has been serving as the team’s starting kicker ever since.
