Everybody who watched was scared.
How could you not be?
Seeing Josh Sweat motionless on the turf and then being carted off the field at the Linc after suffering a neck injury was difficult to watch.
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Sweat was hospitalized, and it wasn’t until he was released Sunday evening that we knew he was going to be OK.
Sweat was scared too. But only for a few seconds.
“After about five seconds, when I regained control, consciousness, whatever what you want to say it is, mostly just a stinger feeling everywhere,” Sweat said. “After that I knew I was good. I knew I was good.
“I just didn’t want to move just in case it would have done something, so I just let them (trainers and doctors) do their job and they took care of me.”
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Incredibly, Sweat returned to practice Thursday on a limited basis, just 11 days after he got hurt in the first quarter of the Eagles’ loss to the Saints.
Sweat had a monster regular season, with a career-high 11 sacks, 15 tackles for loss and 23 quarterback hits. From Week 10 till he got hurt in Week 16, he had 7 ½ sacks, 5th-most in the league during that span
And he’s confident he’ll be back on the field Jan. 22 or 23 when the Eagles open play in the postseason against the Cowboys, Seahawks, Giants or Buccaneers.
“Yeah, absolutely, I’ll be out there,” Sweat said Thursday. “They’re working me back into it, a little slower. But I feel great. I’ll definitely be out there.”
Sweat said he knew pretty quickly he’d be OK, but he could tell his teammates were scared so he started joking with Fletcher Cox just to reassure everybody.
“We were just out there joking around and stuff, he was making jokes and I was laughing,” he said. “I just wanted to let him know I was good.
“It felt great though. All things considered, I realized how much people care around here and how well they do their jobs.”
Sweat finished his rookie season of 2018 on Injured Reserve with an ankle injury, finished 2020 on IR with a wrist injury and then missed last year’s wild-card game against the Bucs when he was hospitalized and underwent surgery for what the Eagles called a “life-threatening” abdominal situation.
He’s only finished one season healthy and has only played in one career playoff game – the loss to Seattle in 2019.
So when he got hurt against the Saints, there was definitely an element of … “Here we go again.”
But this time, Sweat bounced back.
“Physically, I was good after a couple minutes,” he said. “But emotionally, I just wanted to be out there. That’s all I cared about. That was the hard part for me, just missing that game and the next one. I could have been just a part of that fun that was going on, being around everybody. But I’m good now. I’ve moved past it and I’m excited for what’s to come.”
It was hard to ignore the similarities between Sweat’s injury and what happened one night later to Damar Hamlin of the Bills in Cincinnati.
Both injuries looked very serious. Only one was.
“I know,” Sweat said. “It could be on the other end of the spectrum that quickly. I think that’s part of the reason why they didn’t want to let me go out there so soon.
“It can get scary. That’s how I felt at first. … I was like, ‘Make sure I’m good.’ That’s my biggest fear. Not being able to move.
“It’s just the way it hit. It just kind of lined up that way where I got that type of feeling, but I’ve been through a lot of treatment, a lot of rehab. There’s a chance for anybody (to get seriously hurt).
“I’m not really at a higher risk or anything. I’m just going to play exactly like I’ve been playing. If it happens, it happens.”