Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell and Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris didn’t pay any mind to what the NFL league office felt about their ending Friday night’s preseason contest early after Morice Norris suffered a scary injury.
Neither of them cared about anyone but Norris’s family as he was carted off the field after not moving following a tackle attempt. Norris’s head visibly snapped back as he tried to bring Falcons running back Nathan Carter down.
As it turns out, the NFL didn’t care about the game ending at the start of the fourth quarter either.
“Morris said he doesn’t know and gave no consideration to whether the league office would approve of two teams agreeing between themselves to effectively cut a game short by a quarter,” Pro Football Talk’s Michael David Smith wrote.
“In a preseason game, it’s hard to imagine the league office disagreeing with the decision that Campbell and Morris made. Players were shaken by how serious the injury to Norris looked, and weren’t prepared to keep going.”
One way Roger Goodell could make himself even more of a villain to the general public would be getting on either team’s case for considering the health of their players – not just Norris’s health, but the mental health of the entire team – over the result of an exhibition.
Lions quarterback Kyle Allen made it clear he and his teammates were shaken by Norris’s injury.
“I don’t think anybody on that sideline wanted to play… I think you could look at everyone’s eyes and see it’s not worth it,” Allen said postgame.
“It’s just awful… you sign up for football and you understand the risk…but you never think something like that is going to happen.”
It’s probably best that the NFL lets this one slide. Broadcast partners be damned.
