When Aaron Rodgers suffered a torn Achilles on the opening drive of the New York Jets' season, the four-time MVP turned to the late Kobe Bryant for inspiration.
Rodgers, appearing on Prime Video's "Thursday Night Football" pregame show before the Jets' game against the Cleveland Browns, revealed what that meant exactly.
Bryant suffered a torn Achilles in April of 2013 and returned to action eight months later in December. The former Los Angeles Lakers star had his surgery performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who Rodgers used for his surgery because of the aggressive and quicker recovery time with his different method.
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"When I was sitting on the table in the locker room after I came off the field on September 11, I immediately google searched 'Kobe Bryant,'" Rodgers said. "Kobe's a favorite of probably most of ours, and I actually didn't realize that Neal (ElAttrache) had done his surgery. So the next thing I did was text Neal and said 'Hey, I'm going to come see you.'"
"Neal is a fantastic doctor, not just his incredible skill, but his bedside manner and the way he takes care of his patients and keeps in touch with them," Rodgers said. "He's an incredible human being. He did a great surgery on me. And from the start I basically said, 'Listen, I know what the normal protocols are, I know I've got father time working against me, but let's start and cut everything in half and see what we can do with that.' He did a surgery that kind of allows the patient to get on their feet a little quicker because a lot of the stress and strain is actually put into the heel because of the type of surgery we did. So, I was up and moving quicker than usual."
While Rodgers won't return to the field this season for the Jets, the 40-year-old quarterback is expected to return in 2024.