Packers cannot stay healthy, even when no football is being played
By Cody Rivera
Another day, another injury for the Green Bay Packers. This time it was on the softball field.
Ask any fan of the Green Bay Packers what the biggest theme of their 2017 season was, and they would tell you it was the massive string of injuries that ultimately kept them out of the playoffs.
Key defensive guys like Clay Matthews, Nick Perry and Damarious Randall all missed at least a game, and their leading receiver Davante Adams went through the concussion protocol late in the year. But no Green Bay injury was a bigger deal in 2017 than Aaron Rodgers’ infamous broken collarbone that kept him out of nine games.
The Packers are one humongous injury magnet, and apparently, that holds true even when they aren’t playing football. Once again, the victim was Clay Matthews, as reported by Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.
#Packers LB Clay Matthews is headed to the ER after being hit by a line drive in a charity softball game. The belief now is it’s just a broken nose, but he’s having a full workup to be sure. Scary situation, and if it’s just the nose, it could have been much worse.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) June 2, 2018
The longtime Green Bay linebacker suffered a broken nose during a charity softball game in Appleton, Wisconsin. Matthews was serving as one of the two captains of the annual Green and Gold Charity Softball Game, an event which was previously hosted by Jordy Nelson when he was still a part of the Packers.
Matthews was pitching to Packers offensive lineman Lucas Patrick, who drilled a line drive directly back to the mound and into the face of Matthews. He immediately took a tumble to the ground, then hopped back up and hurried off the field with his face tucked into his baseball glove.
Packers LB Clay Matthews takes a liner off the face pitching in the charity softball game at Fox Cities Stadium. Immediately left the field. Hope he's ok @WBAY pic.twitter.com/29aTvXkIc5
— Dave Schroeder (@SchroederWBAY) June 2, 2018
Matthews was taken to the emergency room after the incident, but according to his co-captain Davante Adams, the injury was nothing to get worked up about.
“I wanted to let everybody know Clay is all right,” Adams announced to the crowd. “He’s got a little boo-boo on his nose, but he’ll be all right. He’s a tough guy.”
Just in case anybody was wondering, the softball game did not end due to Matthews’ injury. Adams took over for his fallen teammate on the mound.
Next: Packers have no incentive to give in to Rodgers
In a few months, the Packers might be looking back on this little incident and laughing. But they best hope that this injury curse doesn’t follow them into the 2018 season.