The last thing NFL fans want to see flash across their timelines at this time of the year is the phrase “torn Achilles,” but Packers fans lived out that nightmare Friday morning. Fortunately for them, and not their new head coach, it was Matt LaFleur who suffered the very painful injury.
How did it happen? How did a football coach tear his Achilles tendon during OTAs? He did so while playing Knockout, the basketball game we all played as children.
NFL Media’s Mike Silver has the details…
Silver reports that LaFleur will be forced to coach from a cart until June. The recovery time for such an injury is typically four to six months. If that’s how things work out for the new Packers coach, he could be hobbled for most of the first half of the 2019 season.
The big takeaway from this story is that Knockout is a dangerous game, and should be taken out of the rotation of basketball mini-games. It just isn’t very civil. Here is Peyton and Eli Manning playing the game. Things get kind of rough…
Had the Packers coaching staff played a nice game of H.O.R.S.E. or 21 or King of the Court (with a three-dribble limit), the best of the basketball mini-games in this writer’s opinion, LaFleur would be walking normally right now. Alas.
I’m not saying LaFleur had this injury coming based on his unrefined taste in basketball games, buuuuuuuuuut … OK, that’s exactly what I’m saying.
