INDIANAPOLIS Somewhere high in the stands at Lucas Oil Stadium, Jean Pierre-Paul will take in Super Bowl XLVI.Blind for more than 20 years, Pierre-Paul won’t be able to see the spectacular pregame pageantry, dazzling halftime show or the remarkable plays made by his son, New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul.But Jean will know it when his son blindsides New England quarterback Tom Brady on a sack or bats down a pass or even blocks a kick. Jason Pierre-Paul has done it all in just his second NFL season, collecting 16.5 sacks, forcing two fumbles, blocking a field goal and even recording a safety for the Giants.And now he can only imagine how his father will visualize what the game will be like for him.“Because I’m not in the same shoes that he’s in, I don’t know how it’s going to be for him,” Jason said. “But I know one thing’s for sure, that he’s going to be rooting me on and that my whole family is going to be rooting me on, no matter what. My mom, my whole family will be here. It’s going to be the first time they’ve all been to a football game.“Coming from Haiti, the only football they know is soccer. I was born in America, and the only football I know is football. But he understands. I call and they say he knows I’m playing great.”Jean Pierre-Paul lost his sight mysteriously, before Jason was born on New Year’s Day 1989 in Deerfield Beach, Fla. “He said he was driving once, and he lost more vision in one eye,” Jason said. “He went to the doctor and the doctor said he couldn’t find anything. That was basically it. Then he lost his other vision and was totally blind from there.”The disability created hardships for the immigrant family, including Jason, both a budding basketball and football player who nearly gave up sports because he had to work at Boston Market to help make ends meet.Fearful of getting fired, he told his football coach he would have to quit in order to keep his job. But the store manager understood and adjusted Pierre-Paul’s hours so he could compete in athletics and still work the night shift.“When I got out of practice, it was about 6 o’clock,” Pierre-Paul said. “At 7:30 I had to be at work so I took a shower in the locker room and went straight to work and got off work at 12 o’clock. I went back home and the next day I woke up and went to school.”Pierre-Paul, a strapping 6-foot-5, 275 pounds, admired the way his father dealt with his handicap, and if anything, it provided inspiration.“My dad never quit, no matter what,” Pierre-Paul said. “Most people, when something like that happens, they just think their life is over. But that’s not true. My dad can still do things like a normal person. He still cooks, watches my sister’s and brother’s baby when my mom’s not home. He does things like a regular person.“What I bring to help my team out is that no matter what it is, we could be down 20 points, two touchdowns, I’m never going to quit. I’m going to keep rushing to the ball until the whistle blows and it’s the end of the game. That’s how I’m going to keep on playing.”Pierre-Paul didn’t begin playing football until his junior year of high school. He had broken his leg playing basketball and said the high school coaches convinced him to try football.“I never thought of playing football,” he said. “They dragged me onto the field. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. All they said was rush the quarterback, basically, and that’s what I did from there on out.”That led Pierre-Paul, a diamond in the rough as a football player, to a pair of community colleges, including Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College where he had 10.5 sacks in 2008, before he landed at the University of South Florida. Pierre-Paul played just one year at USF, where he intended to redshirt but ended up earning all-Big East Conference honors and became a YouTube sensation for performing back flips and front flips at a bowl game practice.The Giants selected him as a junior in the first round of the 2010 draft at age 21. And he quickly became the dominant force in one of the NFL’s most devastating pass rushes. He had just 4.5 sacks as a backup during his rookie season, but had a breakout year in 2011 ranking fourth in the league in sacks and earning a Pro Bowl berth.Pierre-Paul compares sacking a quarterback to slamming home a dunk in basketball.“You know, the adrenaline is pumping,” he said. “You just have to get there, and like a dunk, you’ve just got to dunk the ball. Once you do it, you just want another one. Like a sack, once you get one sack, you just want more. The guys on my front line, if Osi (Umenyiora) gets a sack, I want two sacks, because if I get two sacks, Justin Tuck is going to want three sacks. So, you just want to get there as fast as you can, but at the same time you have to play the run.”The frightening part is how much better Pierre-Paul can become.“He’s freakishly talented,” said Tuck. “He’s not even close to where he’ll be. The sky might not be the limit for that guy. It’s fun to watch him. Me and Osi are pretty good pass rushers ourselves, but there are some things he can do we shake our head at.”On the practice field as well as in games.“You can be standing around,” Tuck said, “and you see him, without taking a step, doing a full backflip in pads. At 270 pounds. How scary is that?”

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A late bloomer, Pierre-Paul has become a star

New York’s Pierre-Paul got a late start at football, but he has blossomed into a star.

The Kansas City Star

Julio Cortez

New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul.

More News

INDIANAPOLIS -- Somewhere high in the stands at Lucas Oil Stadium, Jean Pierre-Paul will take in Super Bowl XLVI.

Blind for more than 20 years, Pierre-Paul won’t be able to see the spectacular pregame pageantry, dazzling halftime show or the remarkable plays made by his son, New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul.

But Jean will know it when his son blindsides New England quarterback Tom Brady on a sack or bats down a pass or even blocks a kick.

Jason Pierre-Paul has done it all in just his second NFL season, collecting 16.5 sacks, forcing two fumbles, blocking a field goal and even recording a safety for the Giants.

And now he can only imagine how his father will visualize what the game will be like for him.

“Because I’m not in the same shoes that he’s in, I don’t know how it’s going to be for him,” Jason said. “But I know one thing’s for sure, that he’s going to be rooting me on and that my whole family is going to be rooting me on, no matter what. My mom, my whole family will be here. It’s going to be the first time they’ve all been to a football game.

“Coming from Haiti, the only football they know is soccer. I was born in America, and the only football I know is football. But he understands. I call and they say he knows I’m playing great.”

Jean Pierre-Paul lost his sight mysteriously, before Jason was born on New Year’s Day 1989 in Deerfield Beach, Fla.

“He said he was driving once, and he lost more vision in one eye,” Jason said. “He went to the doctor and the doctor said he couldn’t find anything. That was basically it. Then he lost his other vision and was totally blind from there.”

The disability created hardships for the immigrant family, including Jason, both a budding basketball and football player who nearly gave up sports because he had to work at Boston Market to help make ends meet.

Fearful of getting fired, he told his football coach he would have to quit in order to keep his job. But the store manager understood and adjusted Pierre-Paul’s hours so he could compete in athletics and still work the night shift.

“When I got out of practice, it was about 6 o’clock,” Pierre-Paul said. “At 7:30 I had to be at work so I took a shower in the locker room and went straight to work and got off work at 12 o’clock. I went back home and the next day I woke up and went to school.”

Pierre-Paul, a strapping 6-foot-5, 275 pounds, admired the way his father dealt with his handicap, and if anything, it provided inspiration.

“My dad never quit, no matter what,” Pierre-Paul said. “Most people, when something like that happens, they just think their life is over. But that’s not true. My dad can still do things like a normal person. He still cooks, watches my sister’s and brother’s baby when my mom’s not home. He does things like a regular person.

“What I bring to help my team out is that no matter what it is, we could be down 20 points, two touchdowns, I’m never going to quit. I’m going to keep rushing to the ball until the whistle blows and it’s the end of the game. That’s how I’m going to keep on playing.”

Pierre-Paul didn’t begin playing football until his junior year of high school. He had broken his leg playing basketball and said the high school coaches convinced him to try football.

“I never thought of playing football,” he said. “They dragged me onto the field. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. All they said was rush the quarterback, basically, and that’s what I did from there on out.”

That led Pierre-Paul, a diamond in the rough as a football player, to a pair of community colleges, including Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College where he had 10.5 sacks in 2008, before he landed at the University of South Florida. Pierre-Paul played just one year at USF, where he intended to redshirt but ended up earning all-Big East Conference honors and became a YouTube sensation for performing back flips and front flips at a bowl game practice.

The Giants selected him as a junior in the first round of the 2010 draft at age 21. And he quickly became the dominant force in one of the NFL’s most devastating pass rushes. He had just 4.5 sacks as a backup during his rookie season, but had a breakout year in 2011 ranking fourth in the league in sacks and earning a Pro Bowl berth.

Pierre-Paul compares sacking a quarterback to slamming home a dunk in basketball.

“You know, the adrenaline is pumping,” he said. “You just have to get there, and like a dunk, you’ve just got to dunk the ball. Once you do it, you just want another one. Like a sack, once you get one sack, you just want more. The guys on my front line, if Osi (Umenyiora) gets a sack, I want two sacks, because if I get two sacks, Justin Tuck is going to want three sacks. So, you just want to get there as fast as you can, but at the same time you have to play the run.”

The frightening part is how much better Pierre-Paul can become.

“He’s freakishly talented,” said Tuck. “He’s not even close to where he’ll be. The sky might not be the limit for that guy. It’s fun to watch him. Me and Osi are pretty good pass rushers ourselves, but there are some things he can do we shake our head at.”

On the practice field as well as in games.

“You can be standing around,” Tuck said, “and you see him, without taking a step, doing a full backflip in pads. At 270 pounds. How scary is that?”