The future is uncertain for New York Giants left tackle Nate Solder and he completely understands why that is.
Solder opted out of the 2020 season due to concerns over COVID-19, which came on the heels of his son, Hudson, being diagnosed with cancer. That unfortunate diagnosis led to multiple surgeries and three rounds of chemotherapy, which took a mental toll on the 6-foot-8, 325-pound hulking offensive lineman dating back to 2019.
While Solder refuses to blame his poor play on his personal situation, it’s not difficult to empathize with him.
“In November 2019, Hudson had major surgery to remove a significant portion of his kidney, which they suspected was cancerous. To watch your son go through that — the fear and anxiety and the real sadness of how hard that is — is really hard to see. It put me in a real tailspin emotionally,” Solder wrote in an article for The Increase. “I am not making excuses for my performance that season, but I did realize how dependent I am on emotional stability. It’s taking me a while, but thankfully through prayer, a great wife, a good community and therapy, it’s been good.”
After wrapping up the 2019 season and making the difficult decision to step away from the game for a year in 2020, Solder and his family were finally able to get things in order. Hudson has done well in his battle and entered kindergarten, which has given the Solder family a sense of calm.
“Hudson is doing really awesome. We’ve been through it three times where he’s on chemotherapy, then he’s off chemotherapy. Now we’re doing scans and checkups every three months, but we’re really thankful. He’s in kindergarten right now, just doing normal kid stuff, which is a blessing,” Solder said.
While Hudson’s health has improved, sitting out the 2020 season led to some other issues. Solder, of course, saw a significant reduction in income and also battled with the feelings of letting his teammates down.
“The dependence I felt like my team had on me to protect the quarterback was really weighing on my heart. It was not an easy decision,” he recalls.
Here in 2021, Solder is once again open to returning to the football field, but recognizes that may not happen.
“I’m in a place now where if I am offered another chance to play football, I’ll probably take it. But I’m thankful for the decision I made last year for my family and community,” Solder said.
The Giants have been noncommittal on Solder’s future despite their open support of him and his family. Several reports suggest they’ve approached the 32-year-old about a contract restructure, but both general manager Dave Gettleman and head coach Joe Judge were mum on the topic during their Tuesday Zoom calls.
“I have talked to Nate. To be honest with you, the majority of our conversations have actually had nothing to do with football,” Judge said. “I’ve talked a good bit with Nate since the end of the season and just checked up on him in terms of how the year off went, how his family is doing, how his son is doing and how he’s doing personally. There have been a lot of conversations. We have talked some football. There are other areas of our building as well that are in conversations with Nate, but when the time comes to address all that, we’ll know. Obviously, these things don’t all happen in one day and we’ll see where everything goes.”
With a need to clear substantial salary cap space by March 17, a decision on Solder will have to be made soon. Regardless of what that ends up being, everyone can agree that Hudson’s resurgence is the real story here. That’s a blessing any way you slice it.
