Coming out of Arizona State after a standout career, running back Cam Skattebo made a promise to himself. “If I ever got a major injury I was done playing,” he told Kay Adams on Thursday. Luckily, Skattebo changed his mind. But his revelation didn’t land well with three-time Super Bowl champion and Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know if I believe that because you play the game of football. What [do] you mean, if you suffer serious injuries?’ You don’t play golf. You don’t play a sport that serious injuries don’t happen. You play probably the sport that the most serious injuries happen,” Sharpe said on the Nightcap podcast.
Skattebo, who was drafted last year by the New York Giants, suffered a brutal season-ending injury during the eighth game of his career against the Philadelphia Eagles. The RB went down when his foot got caught under a defender during a tackle, and his right foot turned the wrong way completely. He was then carted off, and his 2025 season ended right there.
But now, Skattebo is back and healthy. He participated in the offseason program and attempted a backflip back in July at Fanatics Fest. Despite an awkward landing, he quickly assured everyone he was fine. Still, head coach John Harbaugh and general manager Joe Schoen had to sit down with the young running back to make sure he wouldn’t be pulling off any more acrobatic stunts anytime soon.
“The big-picture message is you want to take care of yourself, take care of your team. Do everything you can do to be healthy, be back, be right, be good,” Harbaugh said in July. “What does that mean? It’s not going to be the same situation the next time for anybody. It’s going to be different. So it’s really the principle of it.”
For the Giants and quarterback Jaxson Dart, keeping Skattebo healthy this season is crucial. They need every bit of his running power, and Skattebo has put in the work over the last nine months to ensure he stays on the field.
“I was able to sit at home for 14 hours a day, doing absolutely nothing, for weeks on end. So, just finding who I was, finding my happiness, finding the person I wanted to be on and off the field. And I think that’s something I’ve built over the last 9-10 months,” Skattebo said on the Up & Adams Show.
However, the running back also revealed why he chose not to follow through on that retirement promise.
“Probably a month in,” Skattebo said about hanging up his cleats. “Like, the first month was kind of like, ‘Damn. Do I really want to do this?’ And then … it was seven games, you know? I got to go back and play. There’s no shot. If it was the end of the year and I was like, ‘OK, I’m over this?’ [But] I didn’t feel that way at all.”
Regardless of why Skattebo made his choice, what matters most is that he is returning for year two. With Jaxson Dart under center, his presence gives the Giants another genuine shot at becoming contenders this season.