Training camp and preseason in the NFL can be absolutely brutal when it comes to player injuries.
There have already been a number of headlines across the league about team’s losing key players for extended periods of time, and in some instances for the season.
The Cincinnati Bengals saw the brutal reality of the preseason on Saturday when Shawn Williams went down during the first half of Cincinnati’s preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“To hear him yelling like that, (I knew) it can’t be good,” Bengals’ cornerback Josh Shaw said on when Williams was injured.
Williams was carted off the field.
“He was in a little bit of pain out there, so I definitely need to call him as soon as I leave here” Bengals’ safety Derron Smith said (h/t ESPN).
“We knew (immediately) that he was injured. It was hard to tell the severity of it.”
The injury took the air out of the team and many players kneeled as Williams was carted off the field.
For the rest of the game the Bengals looked emotionally crushed by Williams’ injury.
“For that to happen, he’s got to be crushed,” Bengals’ George Iloka said.
“It’s not what we wanted as a defense, as a team or as people who are just friends of his. But I told him to try to find some positive out of his because there’s always light at the other side of the tunnel, and it’s nothing he can’t come back from and bounce back, whenever he comes back.”
“Next man has to be ready. Same thing applies when I got hurt.”