New York Giants OT Nate Solder Opens Up About Being at a Career Crossroads

If there is an opportunity for Solder to resume his career, he’s open to taking it, but he’s also realistic to know that the window may have closed on him.

Nate Solder is a lot of things to a lot of people, but one of his most cherished roles in his life is clearly being a husband and a father.

His commitment to his family was a large part of why the 32-year-old Solder opted out of the 2020 NFL season amid a global pandemic. 

Solder, a cancer survivor who qualified for the high-risk opt-out, revealed in a new essay for The Increase, wrote about that decision and how his young son Hudson, who has dealt with his own cancer battle for most of his life, has taught Solder and his wife Lexi so much about life.

In his heartfelt essay, Solder revealed that Hudson underwent major surgery in November 2019 to remove a significant portion of his kidney that doctors believed was cancerous. Solder, whom Giants fans might remember struggled with his performance that season, went on to say the following:

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. 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.

Solder’s decision to opt-out of last season was due in part to his own health history but perhaps more so due to Hudson’s battle and having a new baby in the house. 

The good news is Hudson is doing better health-wise and has been able to live his life like a normal kid. 

But for Solder, who admits to having lost "significant revenue," the chances of him earning a $9.9 million base salary which is part of a $16.5 million cap hit with the Giants or any other NFL team for that matter, are not very good.

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Giants head coach Joe Judge revealed this week that he has had conversations with Solder, but that the majority of those talks were not football related

"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," Judge revealed. 

But at some point the conversations will have to turn to football and what, if any role Solder might have on a team that seems committed to transitioning its offensive line to a younger group. 

“The opportunity of playing in the NFL again at the age of 32 isn’t great; I don’t know what’s going to happen going forward,” he wrote. “I’m in a place now where if I am offered another chance to play football, I’ll probably take it.”

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