Straight Out Of The WWE: Christian Watson Left Lambeau In An Ambulance After Coughing Up Blood And Breaking a Rib, Then Returned In An Ambulance MID-GAME To Help Secure a Big Packers Win
Patrick McDermott. Getty Images.Christian Watson has unfortunately gained the reputation of being made of glass. Oddly enough, his constant muscle strains that plagued him early in his career were due to his left hamstring being 20% stronger than his right, something called muscle strength and mass asymmetry. Now that they have that figured out he's stopped pulling muscles all the time, allowing him to do his thing and stay on the field. Still, he has that knock on him and anytime he leaves a game it comes up. That's why when the Packers signed him to a four year $110M deal in the offseason the contract was met with immediate pushback.
The thing is when Watson is on the field he's dynamic as it gets, stretching the field over the top while also helping out with key blocks in the run and screen game. Tonight he was all over the place, including hauling in this 53 yard bomb.
Watson landed on the ball during this play, knocking the wind out of him while also breaking a rib. He was spitting up blood on the sideline so the trainers sent him off to the hospital to get further examined and make sure he wasn't dying.
Safe to usually assume when you see a player leave in an ambulance they're out for the game. Well, an hour later Watson returned to Lambeau in that same ambulance and ran out in his pads back on to the field. It was a scene straight out of the WWE.
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Never seen anything like that in my life, especially with the Packers training staff as cautious as can be with injuries. Watson clearly passed all of the necessary tests at the hospital, confirming he was not internally bleeding. He came back in the game and was immediately targeted on an out-n-up down the field that fell incomplete.
First play back from a mid-game hospital trip and they sent him 25+ yards down the field for a contested catch. Maniac.
Well, Watson stayed out there a-ok and ended up making the game-sealing 3rd down catch later on to ice the game. Demon.
Here's Watson talking it through afterwards.
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Love seeing him emerge from the ambulance on the post game desk was hilarious.
One of the crazier things I've seen in a football game. Watson earning every bit of that new contract with that kind of toughness. People are saying, not me, that if Caleb Williams was spitting up blood he would be too scared to get that on his finger nails and would choose to sit out the rest of the game. Not me, just people are saying.
Great Packers win behind a stellar Jordan Love and a relentless defensive performance. I said they had to win this game with the NFC wild card playoff picture as it is. Got the job done. Now a mini bye awaits before a trip to Foxboro.