Cam Skattebo’s long road back finally reached game night on Sunday, but getting to MetLife Stadium turned into its own scene.
The Giants running back was back in action for the first time since last October’s injury against Philadelphia, when a routine tackle left him with a dislocated ankle and a fractured lower leg. That setback required immediate surgery and, for a stretch, put his football future in real doubt. After nearly a year of rehab, he made it all the way back to the field.
Then came the parking-lot drama.
TMZ Sports obtained a photo of Skattebo outside an entry gate at MetLife Stadium around 5:50 p.m., about two and a half hours before kickoff. He was hanging out of a modified pickup truck and appeared to be having trouble getting into the building.
According to witnesses, he was yelling, “Let me in! I’m the running back!”
while trying to get gate staff to open up.
He eventually got inside, but not before quarterback Jaxson Dart and receiver Malik Nabers had already arrived.
Skattebo also added a strange little twist to the whole moment by wearing Dart’s throwback jersey from Corner Canyon High School during the delayed entrance.
It wasn’t the first time Skattebo had made headlines away from football this year. Last November, he caught criticism for showing up at a WWE Monday Night Raw event while still recovering from ankle surgery and getting involved in a staged shoving match with wrestler Dominik Mysterio. At the time, he pushed back on the backlash on social media, saying he was just trying to stay positive during a tough recovery.
He has also been open about how hard the process got mentally. Recently, he said he even considered retiring during the darkest part of rehab. Instead, he kept pushing, got back to practice by spring and made it through the preseason without any setbacks.
Sunday night was the payoff, with Skattebo entering the Giants’ season opener against the Cowboys as a full participant and no injury designation. Even before a snap was played, though, his return already had one more bizarre chapter attached to it.
In Other News...
Cowboys Fans Have A New Overshown Question After That Giants Opener
The Cowboys got their first real look at a new season against the Giants, and before the opener had even settled in, DeMarvion Overshown was already back in the middle of one of the defenses biggest storylines. New York opened with an early touchdown, but the attention quickly shifted to the Dallas linebacker, whose physical style has long made him one of the more intriguing pieces in the front seven as he works back into a full-time role in the teams defensive scheme.
Overshowns late hit on Jaxson Dart drew a penalty and left him facing the possibility of a league fine once the play is reviewed, which only adds another layer to how Dallas will manage him moving forward. Given his history of major knee injuries, every snap for Overshown carries a little more weight than it would for most players, and the Cowboys now have a familiar question to sort through: how to get his aggression on the field without letting it spill over into costly mistakes. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Loss Exposed The Same Problems Fans Feared Most
The season opener in New York did little to quiet the unease around Dallas. The Cowboys fell 28-20 to the Giants, and the loss felt familiar in all the wrong ways, with a defense that had been reshaped in the offseason still unable to get off the field and an offense that spent too much of the night fighting behind the sticks.
New York converted 10 of 11 third downs, a brutal sign for a unit that was supposed to look sturdier after the changes. Add in the penalties, missed tackles, a costly interception and dropped passes, and the Cowboys were left with the same mix of execution problems and coaching questions that have followed them before, only now with an opening loss to show for it. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Trade Deadline Hope Just Got Much Tougher For Jerry Jones
The Cowboys search for a defensive jolt took a hit with Maxx Crosby staying put on the Raiders side of the conversation. Dallas had already been in the mix as a finalist in earlier trade talks, and Jerry Jones has made it clear he is open to doing something if it helps the defense. With the deadline still weeks away, the idea of Crosby in a Cowboys uniform had remained alive as one of the bigger names worth monitoring.
But the market has gotten a lot more complicated. The Rams also explored a deal for Crosby, only to learn he does not want to be moved and would rather remain in Las Vegas, and that kind of stance changes the temperature around any chase. For the Cowboys, it means any renewed push would have to overcome not just trade cost, but a player preference that could make a November 10 deal much harder to pull off. [Read more 🡒]