GREEN BAY – As all NFL clubs do, the Packers have a lot to process this week, and players are working through it in their own ways while appreciating the togetherness fostered within the team, locker room and league.
Seeing Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin go into cardiac arrest on the field in Cincinnati during Monday Night Football has been on everyone’s mind. So when the players returned to work Wednesday after their usual Tuesday off, Head Coach Matt LaFleur held an extended morning meeting to allow players to discuss what happened if they desired, but not much was said.
“It was very, very quiet in there,” LaFleur said. “I think it’s tough for these guys to compartmentalize and understand that you’re thinking about that and you’re trying to get ready for a game.”
The Packers have a high-stakes contest Sunday night at Lambeau Field against the Lions, needing a win to get into the playoffs. But it’s going to take some time this week for the focus to reach the level it normally would with Hamlin still in critical condition as of Wednesday evening.
The players – who all expressed their thoughts and prayers for Hamlin, his family and the Bills – feel they’ll get there eventually, but it’s an added challenge to the week nobody saw coming.
“You can’t. You can’t compartmentalize it,” veteran receiver Randall Cobb said. “That was really tough to watch. It was really difficult to see. It’s been tough to sleep the last couple of nights.”
Cobb mentioned he’s had some emotional discussions with his wife, recalling his own serious on-field injuries, including a broken leg in Baltimore in 2013 and a punctured lung in Arizona in the 2015 playoffs that required an ambulance trip to the hospital.
The physicality and violence involved in the game are the norm, and those risks are understood. But seeing life and death as another category of risk on display in Cincinnati took everyone aback.
“I can’t even express the emotions. It’s been a rollercoaster,” Cobb said. “I’ve had tears. I’ve been mad. I’ve been angry. I’ve been asking why, how.
“It’s real. We’re real people. I know that we put a helmet on and we take the field and we’re like present-day gladiators, but we go home to a family. I’ve got two kids at home who are expecting me to walk back in that door. I’ve got a wife. I’ve got a dad that’s here. My mom’s coming up this weekend. I have family and I have people that care about me, as all of us, all of our players, all of my teammates, all my NFL brothers, we all…
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