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On Sunday, Packers wide receiver Davante Adams was knocked out of a game for the second time this season after suffering a concussion after a very questionable helmet-to-helmet hit. And he’s not happy about it.
The last time it happened was back on September 28th when the Bears’ Danny Trevathan knocked Adams out with what many believed to be a dirty hit. This belief was upheld when the NFL suspended Trevathan for two games after reviewing it.
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This time Adams was the victim of a vicious blindside block by Panthers’ linebacker Thomas Davis following an Aaron Rodgers interception.
After the game, Adams’ teammate Randall Cobb voiced his opinion of the hit.
“I was pretty pissed off at first when I saw the replay at how unnecessary it was,” said Cobb, according to Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com. “But once I saw ‘Tae’ moving, he was alright and I was happy to see he was able to walk off the field.”
Adams’ coach Mike McCarthy, while saying that he would not judge the hit until he saw a replay of it, did state, “I saw the reaction on our sideline. I know a lot of guys thought it was a dirty hit.”
Rodgers called the hit “unnecessary.”
Monday morning, Adams himself took to Twitter to call out Davis and express his opinion of the hit, calling it “head hunting.”
I’ll never understand it. Game is already dangerous enough and we got Pro Bowl players out here head hunting and saying they “didn’t mean to harm me”
— Davante Adams (@tae15adams) December 18, 2017
Somebody please explain to me what I wasnt trying to hurt him means when we nowhere near the play and u lead with ya head and ear hole a defenseless player….
— Davante Adams (@tae15adams) December 18, 2017
Look it’s football but no room for shit like that. We supposed to be in this together n look out for one another not mess with a mans livelihood and hand out unnecessary concussions. We all got mouths to feed what if I did that to him and his kids cant eat…
— Davante Adams (@tae15adams) December 18, 2017
Not the type to rant but when u go through this shit twice in a year it takes a lil toll on u so excuse me.
— Davante Adams (@tae15adams) December 18, 2017
For his part, Davis issued his own tweet in which he apologized to Adams saying he had no malicious intent…
I understand your frustration and I do apologize for the hit! In no way was I trying to hurt you. My first instinct was turn and make a block. In all sincerity I do apologize. I truly respect you as a player and I made a mistake!
— Thomas Davis (@ThomasDavisSDTM) December 18, 2017
Adams later retweeted this tweet, a pretty clear response to Davis’ apology…
https://twitter.com/PhillyD/status/942805491503079424
Then, for some reason, Washington Redskins linebacker Zach Brown decided to get in on this beef with a couple of tweets of his own, including one stating that he is “always head hunting.”
Look, don't play football if u don't wanna get hit or hurt. So stop crying about getting hit !!! You know what u sign up for.
— Zach Brown (@ZachBrown_55) December 18, 2017
Tell him don't play…. cause I'm always headhunting
— Zach Brown (@ZachBrown_55) December 18, 2017
Also on Monday, ESPN’s Demovsky reported…
“If you see Thomas’ reaction to the hit that he made, you know that it wasn’t intentional to hit him that way,” Panthers coach Ron Rivera said Monday. “It was intentional that he wanted to block him, and I just take it from the way he reacted he did not intend to hit him high or in the head.
“Unfortunately, that’s the result, and we’ll see what the league has to say at that point.”
Asked if he thought Davis might be suspended, Rivera said “there’s a chance.”
“Again, the intent was not there. There wasn’t any showboating or taunting. In fact, I know on the bench he was upset about it,” he said.
No way he Davis doesn’t get suspended right? Oh wait, this is the NFL where the doling out, as well as the length and severity, of suspensions defies logic.
It is hits like this, however, that leads many to believe that the NFL will indeed add a rumored college-style targeting rule at some point in the very near future.