New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo turned up at Fanatics Fest in New York on Saturday and attempted a backflip. He did not stick the landing, and the clip went viral for good reason: Skattebo is recovering from an open tibia fracture and a right ankle dislocation he suffered in Week 8 of last season, and the fall appeared to catch that repaired ankle awkwardly. A day later, Skattebo addressed the moment at another Fanatics Fest appearance on SiriusXM’s The Fantasy Footballers podcast and delivered a message that should be taken as both reassurance and an indicator of who he is.
“I’ve been doing backflips since I was like four years old. So it’s natural to me. I’m gonna address the elephant. I will not hurt myself before the season,” Skattebo said. He then explained what went wrong. “What happened was, I don’t know if you guys know WWE or not, those floors are bouncy. So when I took off, I was mid-air, like, ‘Holy cow, I’m not gonna land this, I’m way too high.’ Landed, but it had too much cushion. It wasn’t a stiff, firm ground. So that’s why I went back, safely landed, got back up and was good to go. Nothing came out of that. I’m perfectly fine.”
Nov 16, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo (44) on the field before the game against the Green Bay Packers at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Dart told reporters Skattebo just over-rotated on the attempt
New Giants head coach John Harbaugh is not new to the Skattebo situation. Harbaugh joked at minicamp that he had to remind Skattebo specifically that backflips were not permitted during organized team activities. Skattebo did one anyway at Fanatics Fest on a Saturday in July.
Giants RB Cam Skattebo “perfectly fine” after botched backflip: “I will not hurt myself before the season”https://t.co/QOOC1Hv1VO pic.twitter.com/sCRRZbAbaZ
— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) July 20, 2026
Quarterback Jaxson Dart, who appeared alongside Skattebo on the podcast, offered the most technically optimistic take of the botched attempt. “Hey, when I looked at it though, I was like, that’s the most explosive I’ve seen Skat. He over-rotated. He looks real good, man. He looks real good.”
Skattebo’s rookie season in 2025 produced genuine promise before the injury arrived. In eight games, he ran for 410 yards on 101 carries with five touchdowns for a team that had gone through multiple running back situations in recent years. The injury in the Week 8 game against the Philadelphia Eagles was described by medical personnel as one of the more severe lower-leg injuries the game can produce. He was back doing backflips by late May, landing one cleanly at a celebrity softball event.
Skattebo was asked about the “wild maniac” reputation he has accumulated in his short time in New York and declined to walk any of it back. “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,” he said.
Giants training camp opens at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, next week. Skattebo told the podcast he is ready to go and said he has been working through conditioning drills with Dart in recent weeks.
Related Readings:
Joe Burrow: Justin Jefferson went silent for a week over two LSU games
Brandon Aiyuk uses Kyle Shanahan’s overture as social media ammunition
‘He couldn’t get an NFL job’: Paul Finebaum delivers a brutal verdict on Bill Belichick at UNC