Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer isn't buying it.
The Green Bay Packers can say all they want that quarterback Aaron Rodgers is day to day with a knee injury. The two-time NFL MVP will be given the whole week to get ready for Sunday's game against Minnesota
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"Yeah, well, you know he walks on water, so I'm sure he's going to play," Zimmer said Wednesday in a conference call.
Green Bay returned to the practice field on Wednesday, though Rodgers did not participate and stayed at Lambeau Field to rehab. Asked at his locker if it was accurate to say his injury was a sprained knee, Rodgers said, "Sure ... say sprained knee."
Wearing a brace could be an option, depending on how the quarterback feels later in the week. If he can't go, the Packers would turn to backup DeShone Kizer, who accounted for two turnovers after coming in when Rodgers got hurt in the second quarter last week against the Bears.
"Haven't even thought about that," Rodgers said when asked if he had confidence in Kizer if the backup needed to start.
So it's understandable why Zimmer and the Vikings think Rodgers will play. After all, Rodgers returned from injury on Sunday after being taken to the locker room on the front seat of a cart.
Rodgers walked back out halftime, took over on the first series of the second half and threw three touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to rally the Packers from 20 points down to a 24-23 victory. He said after the game that while he had to undergo more tests, he planned on playing against Minnesota.
Rehabbing on Wednesday was not a setback
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"I think anytime a player comes off a game where he's injured, obviously there's the hope of playing," McCarthy added. "We'll give him the whole week to get ready. So we'll take it day by day and learn as we go."
Rodgers said he was feeling progressively better over the last couple days, though still sore. The 14-year veteran said he does not need to practice to play.
"I mean every practice is important," receiver Davante Adams said. "But ... two days is not going to make or break whether (we have) success, whether it's me and DeShone, me and Aaron, whoever it may be."
Rodgers has played before with an injured left knee. He tore the ACL in his knee in high school, and played with the injury for four years before having surgery while in college at California. He also had a cleanup procedure on the knee a few years ago by the Packers team doctor.
"So I know what it feels like to play with something like this, and hopefully I'll be at the point where I can (play) on Sunday," Rodgers said.
He described how he was cleared to play by the team doctor at halftime against the Bears so long as he could "deal with the pain." There were a couple throws in which Rodgers said he got a "jolt" of pain after putting weight on his left leg.
"It's super painful, and you've just got to suck it up and play through it," Rodgers said at his locker. "To be in this room, you've got to be mentally and physical tough."
If Rodgers does play, it would be his first game against the Vikings since the two-time MVP broke his right collarbone following a hit from Minnesota linebacker Anthony Barr on Oct. 15. The injury limited Rodgers to seven games last year.
"We know he's playing
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NOTES: Adams also missed practice after he said he hurt his shoulder when a Bears defensive back landed on him after making a 51-yard catch. He said he would try to return to practice on Thursday and was optimistic about playing Sunday. "So we're just taking it light a little bit just so we can build up and be ready for Sunday," Adams said. ... S Josh Jones (ankle) missed practice, while rookie LB Oren Burks (shoulder) was limited.
AP Pro Football Writer Dave Campbell contributed to this story.
DENVER (AP) — Last season, the Seattle Seahawks led the league when it came to the number of players willing to make a statement while the national anthem played.
To start this season, that wave of Seahawks has dwindled to only two players.
Linemen Duane Brown and Quinton Jefferson walked off the field and waited in the tunnel while a field-sized American flag was unfurled and the national anthem played before their season opener Sunday in Denver.
In a league where more than 200 players once took some sort of action to protest police brutality and social injustice in America during the anthem, The Associated Press counted fewer than 10 across the league who did so on the NFL’s opening Sunday. Only two of them — Albert Wilson and Kenny Stills of the Dolphins — kneeled while the “Star-Spangled Banner” played.
None of which bothered Brown much. He says he’s committed to what he’s doing.
“I made my decision,” he said. “That was my decision. I wasn’t paying attention to what other teams or other players are doing.”
The lower numbers might reflect a new strategy many players are embracing to draw attention to the issues Colin Kaepernick raised when he began kneeling for the anthem in 2016. The then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback was looking to shine a light on issues impacting African American communities.
Since then, a group of NFL players have formed the Players Coalition . They want to move the focus away from the anthem, which has become a lightning rod, in part because of President Donald Trump’s continued criticism of players who don’t stand during the anthem.
“We’re trying to move past the rhetoric of what’s right or what’s wrong in terms of the anthem, and really focus on the systematic issues that are plaguing our communities,” said Malcolm Jenkins of the Eagles, one of the group’s co-founders, who is no longer protesting during the anthem.
And yet, if Kaepernick is on board with all of that
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“My Brothers (Stills) and (Wilson) continue to show their unwavering strength by fighting for the oppressed,” Kaepernick said in his tweet. “They have not backed down, even when attacked and intimidated. … Love is at the root of our resistance.”
Kaepernick’s message got through to his friends in Miami.
“I know he has our back,” Stills said. “Really, there has been a huge difference between when we first started protesting and now. A lot of people are reaching out and supporting us, so I really appreciate that. To everybody out there … let’s keep doing our best to make positive change and have these conversations and make our country a better place.”
Since opting out of his contract after 2016, Kaepernick has been unable to land a job with an NFL team and is suing the league for collusion.
But his voice is still being heard. Last week, Nike introduced an ad featuring the quarterback and his message: “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.”
Other than Stills, Wilson and the two Seahawks, Dolphins defensive lineman Robert Quinn raised his fist during the anthem. Niners receiver Marquise Goodwin did the same at San Francisco’s game at Minnesota. In Los Angeles, Chargers left tackle Russell Okung raised his fist. And back in Denver, Broncos receiver Demaryius Thomas and linebacker Brandon Marshall retreated to their tunnel while the anthem played.
Marshall sent out a statement touting a charity designed to help people who are on the verge of homelessness.
“It is time that we build social currency by way of empowering our future generations,” Marshall said. “This begins by addressing the most fundamental needs — by feeding the minds and bodies.”
This came hours after Trump opened the day with a tweet that took digs at the NFL, linking low ratings for Thursday night’s opener between Atlanta and Philadelphia (lowest for an opener since 2008) to players who refuse to stand for the anthem.
“If the players stood proudly for our Flag and Anthem
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CBS and Fox, which carried Sunday afternoon’s games, did not televise the anthem.
However, NBC did show the anthem Thursday night (but not before Sunday night’s Bears-Packers game), and no players kneeled or protested in other ways.
But while the tumult over the anthem appears to be dying down, the NFL still hasn’t collaborated with the players union to come up with a definitive solution.
In May, the league briefly put a policy in place, but rescinded it after the union filed a grievance. The union and league are still negotiating. Brown, of the Seahawks, said he has not received any message from the union to tamp down the protest.
“I don’t think that would be the best idea to try to get people to move on from it,” he said. “The country hasn’t moved on from it, so I’m not going to move on from it either.”
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