Giants running back Cam Skattebo’s mother slams critics after player’s comments about CTE, asthma

The mother of New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo came to her son’s defense after he made surprising comments about CTE and asthma.

The second-year NFL player appeared on a recent podcast and was asked if CTE was “a real thing,” to which he responded, “No.” He also claimed that asthma was an “excuse.” Skattebo later apologized for making a “tasteless joke” about the two ailments.

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Cam Skattebo of the New York Giants is interviewed during Super Bowl LX Radio Row at Moscone Center West on February 6, 2026 in San Francisco, California. (Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images)

“If people knew how many times Cam had to ‘run to get Mom’s inhaler,’ they’d see the sarcasm… you’ll never make everyone happy and you’ll never say all the right things and people are bound to turn something sooner or later in a direction it was never intended to go,” Becky Skattebo wrote in X.

The Giants player admitted to an “error in judgment” when he made those comments.

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New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo is shown warming up before the game between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles on October 26, 2025, at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Terence Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

“I recently did an interview and made an error in judgment, which led me to make a distasteful joke about CTE and asthma,” he wrote on

According to the Mayo Clinic, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive, degenerative brain disease related to repeated impacts to the head rather than a single injury. More than 100 former NFL football players have been posthumously diagnosed with CTE, according to a University of Utah study published in the Journal of Neurotrauma.

Running back Cam Skattebo during warm-ups at the Giants’ rookie minicamp. (Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

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Skattebo quarterback Jaxson Dart was examined for concussions at least five times throughout the season and even missed two games after being diagnosed with one. Skattebo was fined once for entering the medical tent while Dart was being evaluated.

News’ Ryan Morik contributed to this report.

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