NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Giants are signing defensive back Jason Pinnock to a contract for next season, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Friday because the move had not been announced.
Pinnock, who turns 27 one June 30, returns to a familiar place after spending last season with the San Francisco 49ers, playing in all 17 regular-season games and starting seven.
As a fifth-round pick of the Jets in 2021, Pinnock played his rookie year with them. He spent the 2022, ’23 and ’24 seasons with the Giants before departing in free agency.
Pinnock coming back makes him part of a rebuilt secondary for new coach John Harbaugh and defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson. He has played safety for most of his professional career.
New York also signed cornerback Greg Newsome and agreed to terms with safety Ar'Darius Washington, the latter of whom is one of at least four former Baltimore Ravens players following Harbaugh to his new team.
“I just feel like this is an up-and-coming team,” Newsome said Friday on a video call with reporters. “We’ve got a lot of guys on that front that can rush the passer, can do a lot of great things. The secondary, we’re all pretty young, and got a lot of potential. That was something that really intrigued me.”
The Giants lost starting cornerback Cor'Dale Flott to Tennessee, and it could turn out to be another training camp competition for who gets the No. 2 spot opposite Paulson Adebo. Last year, Flott beat out 2023 first-round pick Deonte Banks, who may get a clean slate with Harbaugh and new staff in charge.
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FILE - New York Giants safety Jason Pinnock (27) in action during the NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola,File)
FILE - San Francisco 49ers safety Jason Pinnock (25) reacts during the first half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks in Santa Clara, Calif., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Ex-rugby league international Kane Evans won’t have to worry about the extortion threats any more or be concerned about his family finding out about his sexuality before he’s ready to tell them.
In a television interview Monday with Channel Nine’s “100% Footy,” Evans said he was gay and that he felt like a weight had lifted off him when he finally could talk about it publicly.
Evans is the first high-level rugby league player in Australia to come out as gay since Ian Roberts in 1995.
Evans played 131 games in the elite National Rugby League from 2014-2021 for clubs including the Sydney Roosters, Parramatta and the New Zealand-based Warriors before finishing off his professional career in England in 2023. He played 13 international games for Fiji.
“I had three goals in life: It was to play NRL, to buy my parents a house, and then I wanted to top myself, because I was living in denial from a young age,” the 34-year-old Evans said in the television interview. “I know that I’m gay. But I went down every other avenue to sort of build up these walls ... to escape who I am.”
After struggling with addiction and suicidal thoughts as he dealt with his sexuality as a younger man and professional footballer, and then experiencing homelessness after a business collapse in his post-rugby league career, Evans finally got the support he needed.
Evans said it was only after talking to Joe Galuvao, a former player who works with the Rugby League Players’ Association, that he realized help was so close.
“I thank God that he came and visited me and got me into rehab with the help of the RLPA,” Evans said.
Others in the football fraternity reached out, Evans said. Like Sydney Roosters head coach Trent Robinson, who helped pay the bills while Evans was in rehabilitation and invited him back into the club.
“He called me just to let me know that the Roosters are still my home and they’ve got my back, whatever I’m facing,” Evans said. “That meant the world to me. He took me, my best friend, and one of my mentors to Roosters HQ a week after I got out of rehab."
Evans had planned to come out to his family before the television interview aired.
“I've been fighting a war within since I was about 15 years old and it's not sustainable,” he said. “I’m here today to show people that you don’t have to live like that. Even now I feel a bit more free, just by saying it out loud, I’ve brought it to the light."
Evans said he'd had “people blackmail me … I’ve had people try to deflect their problems by trying to out me. And it just built up a lot of shame, and fear and guilt within myself.”
“Now I’ve spoken about it, I’ve shattered all those chains. They’ve lost their power," he added. “I feel like coming and speaking to you today, fear, shame, guilt -- all of that, I’ve cut ties with all that. I feel peace within.”
Roberts, who played for Australia in the 1990s, described Evans' interview as an “extraordinary moment” and “I was in tears watching.”
“I am so proud of him,” Roberts told News Corp. “Everything he was saying ... I thought ‘this poor kid,’ I know exactly where he is in his head, what he is going through, the extremes of uncertainty of your own sense of self and your sense of other people.”
Andrew Johns, one of rugby league's greatest players, said the bravery Evans had shown would be encouraging for other people.
“To come out and tell the world, especially the rugby league world, it's incredibly strong," Johns told the Nine network. “There's going to be so much love for him in the rugby league — he's going to save a lot of lives.”
Johns said there were a lot of young people struggling with their sexuality and when “they see someone like Kane and the pain he's gone through, and the strength he's shown, it'll help them stand up and talk to parents, or people close to them.”
“So Kane, well done mate," he added. "We all love you. Incredibly proud of you.”
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Kane Evans of the Parramatta Eels, top, is tackled by Bayley Sironen of the South Sydney Rabbitohs during their National Rugby League match between in Sydney, on Aug. 27, 2020. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP Image via AP)
