EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It's not that Jason Pierre-Paul never reached out to children before, or that he's never spent time visiting sick kids in the hospital.
He has. It's just that, after all that's happened to the New York Giants defensive end this year, it feels different to him now.
"I'm a role model," Pierre-Paul said after the Giants' practice Monday. "I'm a father now myself. And I know my own son, I'm only going to be able to tell him so much. He's going to look up to someone other than me. When a role model tells you something's going to be OK, it's going to be OK."
Pierre-Paul made some very nice headlines last week after reaching out via FaceTime to Seamus Bohanon, an 11-year-old Pennsylvania boy who recently lost parts of two fingers when they got caught in his bicycle chain.
Pierre-Paul said he's been having more conversations like that since he himself lost his right index finger and severely damaged other parts of his hand in a July 4 fireworks accident.
"At first I didn't really see it, but after my situation that happened, I see it," Pierre-Paul said. "The effect you can have. I've reached out to kids before, but it means more to me now because of what actually happened to me. I'm lucky to be alive. And when you have your own kid, it makes you look at things differently, too."
Pierre-Paul said his son, Josiah, was born two months premature and weighed 3 pounds, 8 ounces, but that now, at 11 months, he weighs 35 pounds. There are at least a dozen photos of Josiah in Pierre-Paul's locker, and while his father's fantastic claims are not directly verifiable, he does look like a very large young man.
Pierre-Paul says Josiah will run to his mother and he believes he's on track to be a great athlete.
"I'm pretty sure he's going to be fine. He's got my genes, not his mother's," Pierre-Paul said. "Maybe the looks are from her, but all the athletic stuff came from me."
Joking aside, Pierre-Paul absolutely seems to be a man at peace who appreciates his fresh opportunity. He spent the bye week in New Jersey doing more rehab to rebuild the strength in his hand, and he says he's growing more comfortable with it all the time.
"Everything is new to me," he said. "Like you all can see, everything is new to me, still learning every day, daily, the system and how to use my hand. The good thing about it is that I can still play football. I have to be consistent with things, but everything is just new. I'm just learning, and as time goes on, I'm just getting better."