For all of the people who got on their high horse over New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo’s failed backflip — attempted on his surgically repaired leg — please understand that the 1 person who really has the right to be mad is most definitely not.
That would be Giants head coach John Harbaugh, who dismissed the controversy … but did take Skattebo to task over 1 thing.
“Dude, at least stick it, you know what I mean?” Harbaugh told reporters when asked about Skattebo’s failed attempt at Fanatics Fest. “Land the thing if you’re gonna do it.”
Skattebo, who made the backflip a touchdown celebration as a rookie, actually completes the backflip and flubs the landing.
Harbaugh has done a deft job of handling controversies — however minor — as they arise since being hired by the Giants in January. That includes when star wide receiver Malik Nabers publicly questioned the Giants’ decision to draft linebacker Arvell Reese with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Cam Skattebo’s Offseason of Bad PR Moves
It wasn’t the first misstep for Skattebo this offseason, who seemed unbothered by criticism of a series of confounding public relations disasters of his own doing.
“I’m just going to keep being me, and if they want to say I’m brain-dead, and I don’t have no brain, then who cares, f— it,” Skattebo said in response to the blowback over his failed backflip.
In March, Skattebo was asked during an interview if he thought CTE was real and gave a shocking response.
“No, (CTE) is an excuse,” Skattebo said. “Asthma’s fake, too … you’re just soft (if you have either condition.”
After facing widespread condemnation for his comments, Skattebo issued a public apology.
“I recently did an interview and had a lapse in judgment, which resulted in me making a tasteless joke about CTE and asthma. It was never my intention to downplay the seriousness of head injuries or asthma,” Skattebo wrote on his official X account. “I sincerely apologize to anyone that was offended by my remarks, and I assure you that I’ll be more mindful and respectful going forward.”
There was 1 Skattebo defender — his mother.
“If only people knew how many times cam had to ‘run and get mom’s inhaler’ they’d realize the sarcasm … you’ll never make everyone happy and you’ll never say all the right things and people are bound to spin something sooner or later in a direction it was never intended to go,” Becky Skattebo wrote on X.
Cam Skattebo Seemed Dominant at Times as Rookie
Skattebo, a 2025 4th-round pick out of Arizona State, was 1 of the NFL’s great early-season surprises as a rookie with 617 yards of total offense and 7 touchdowns before he suffered a gruesome, dislocated right ankle against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 8.
“Nabers’ status remains up in the air for training camp, but Giants general manager Joe Schoen said that he remains optimistic the third-year former first-round pick can return by Week 1,” Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon wrote on July 1. “Nabers has hardly worked at all with Jaxson Dart, and the idea is that those two are the future of this franchise. If the team is going to take a major step forward in 2026, it needs a relatively full and productive campaign from a guy who went over 1,200 yards as a rookie in 2024 … Skattebo was a force for a small stretch in his rookie campaign, and he, Jaxson Dart and Malik Nabers could become something special together as part of this young Giants offense.”
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