It’s one of the ugly realities of the game of football—people get hurt. But it’s not too often that an injury appears so brutal, both teams decide to end the game early.
So when Detroit Lions players joined hands with the Atlanta Falcons during Friday night’s preseason matchup after Lions safety Morice Norris’ went down with an injury, it was quite a rare and terrifying scene.
“It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen,” Lions team president Rod Wood told FOX 2 on Monday morning. “I think for those that were on the field it was even more frightening.”
Norris collided with Atlanta Falcons running back Nathan Carter, suffering a head injury and appearing to lose consciousness. Things came to a screeching halt as he was taken off the field in an ambulance. Both the Lions and Falcons would forfeit the rest of the game—most of the fourth quarter—as they joined together in prayer circles.
“I want to thank the Falcons and Raheem Morris, in particular the head coach, for being so sensitive to it. He and Dan (Campbell) talked. They tried to suspend the game, couldn’t get ahold of the league in order to do it at that moment, so they just decided we’re just going to play the game out by taking a snap and letting the clock run,” Wood said.
He says he saw players from both teams incredibly emotionally impacted by the injury, and they had “no interest” in playing the rest of the game.
“The way that it turned out is almost a miracle,” Wood said.
Sure enough, the Lions reported late Friday night that Norris was in stable condition, had movement in all his extremities, and stayed overnight in an Atlanta hospital for observation. Wood said that night, he was doing so well they almost let him fly back to Detroit with the team, but opted to play it safe.
Almost astonishingly considering how terrifying the hit looked, Wood said Norris went to a team meeting Sunday and was already back at training camp Monday morning.
“It’s good to have him back. He’s good,” Dan Campbell said Monday. “So obviously he’s in concussion protocol. We’re going to take it nice and easy here, make sure he’s good over the next, call it 10-14 days, and reassess.”
And onto the rest of your notes.
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