December 15, 2023 • 20 mins
Vikings linebacker Jordan Hicks joins Dan Barreiro for the first time since his injury to talk about what he went through that day and how rehab has gone.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Jordan Hicks joins us via the ConnecticoWater Systems hotline. Thank you for some
time, and I hope you aredoing well, sir. It's been a
long time since we've had a chanceto chat. Man, too long,
too long. Appreciate you having meas always, and yeah, excited to
be back on here. Well,it's great to have you on. And
(00:20):
we've been thinking about you a lot. The saga has been fairly well reported,
but I do want to try toget in the weeds on it a
little bit in terms of what youhave been enduring. And I actually want
to go back to the beginning,if we can't, to the play itself
on which you got hurt and whetherat that moment you felt like God,
(00:41):
this is bad or what happened onthat play just kind of put us back
at the beginning, what started thiswhole saga for you. Yeah, So
it was a play where I wasgetting off a block and making a side
tackle on Camara. Legs whip around, you know, and it's happened sometimes
(01:03):
cam Binen comes in for a squaretackle and my leg just whips right into
his knee. The moment it happened, I knew, I knew it was
you know, I felt it.I felt it. It was it didn't
feel good. I hobbled around.They were going, they were going pretty
quick. I ended up staying inthat next plan, literally hobbled the entire
play, uh, trying to pursuethe ball came off of the field and
(01:27):
you know, went into the bluetent. Did everything there checked out right,
still had strength, still still wasable to move on it, even
though I felt that it just feltyou know, it felt like a bruise,
right, if anybody's ever had athy bruise, you know, any
type of calf bruise or anything thatthat happens, right, it's something that
that sucks in the moment. Butyou know, you think that it's just
(01:51):
going to continue to just it's allyou got to do is just push in
the pen and you'll be fine.So that's what I did. I came
back, uh two drives later,you know, played played on it the
rest of the half, came outthe third quarter, kept it warm,
was doing everything everything I could,and then my last drive out there,
it was it was very it wasvery different than the previous drives. It
(02:15):
was losing strength. I almost rolledmy ankle out. I'm pretty sure.
I did roll my ankle twice onthat drive making a tackle of the backfield
covering a guy downfield. Just therewas nothing left. And that's kind of
the message I relayed when when Icame off of the field, you know,
to our trainers, I was like, I've got nothing less in this
thing, Like I can't even Icouldn't even lift my foot in the moment.
(02:37):
Yeah, it was, it was, you know, and that's that's
part of the scare, right.I was naive to the fact of how
serious it could be. The doctors, the the the trainers, they they
did a great job. They knewthe whole time. They sent me back
into the training room, and atthat moment, once the adrenaline from the
game left, the pain, Ijust absolutely ramped up, and uh,
(03:00):
the pain. Pain I've never feltin my life. It was completely it
was just it was excruciating, verydifferent from anything I've ever experienced. And
you know, it just kind ofthroughout the process of that night didn't go
away, no matter what kind ofpainments they put me on, no matter
you know, in the ambulance onthey took me to the ambulance or to
the hospital, and the ambulance becauseit was you know, they were like,
(03:23):
we got to get in there now. I can't waste time with this
thing. And even in the ambulancewhen they gave me the real drugs,
I still was still was in excruciatingpain. So just a just a wild
and freak, you know incident.I meane, thousands of tackles in my
life and never you know, hadanything, never even heard of this before
before I had it. So,yeah, your condition, like you said,
(03:44):
you just you you your football player. You you play through it,
not not stupidly, but you say, well, I've you know, I
felt this before. I'll just giveit some time and it'll get better.
At what point do you become awareof this thing called compartment syndrome? When
do they make it you aware ofit? And and so and when did
this because I assume that's all relatedto swelling, When did the swelling take
(04:05):
place? In terms of the pointwhere you're you get the feeling that they're
worried for you, They're getting scared, and they will they are taking these
extra steps to be sure as precautionthat this thing doesn't go really bad.
Yeah, it was. It wasso the entire time it was swelling.
Right. One of the questions Iasked was, did me playing on this,
(04:29):
you know, make it worse interms of the swelling. And you
know, if I wouldn't have playedwith the bleeding have stopped. Right,
The bleeding didn't stop for three straightdays, right that they cut my leg
open and they left it open forfour days. It was and it was
in the moment of me being backthere and just being in pain and not
being able to get comfortable, andyou know, I think that was kind
(04:51):
of the key in determining factor.And the whole thing was, you know,
the pain is going to set in, right if that blood and that
that pooling has nowhere to go,uh, and if it continues to bleed,
it's going to continue to get worse. And I think at that point
they were like, all right,this thing is serious. And they told
me, you know, when wewere heading to the hospital, Duck said,
(05:14):
you know, we're gonna make anincision. We're going to see and
if if if it's if it's whatwe think it could be, you might
have a foot long scar on yourleg. And uh woke up, woke
up from surgery, and that's whatI had. Oh my god, and
so when they're leaving it open,I mean, are you what what kind
of pain are you in at thatpoint? How worried are you at that
(05:38):
point? Do you feel like,Okay, no, they know what they're
doing here, this is this ispart of the process and this will get
better. I mean, what whatwhat were you thinking at that point?
And I don't be grizzly about it, but are you can you see all
of this or are you not lookingat it? Because it would seem like
it would be even if you're notsqueamish, it would seem to be like
(05:58):
something you're not gonna want to fixateon. Yeah, no, I didn't.
My wife has a has a pictureof it. All the trainers have
a picture of it. I haveseen that picture maybe three times since it
happened, and a couple of timeson accident. Uh in the moment,
No, I was not. Itwas fully dressed, right, They're they're
doing everything uh in their in theiryou know, ability to keep infection out.
(06:24):
That was kind of the biggest thing. You know, They've got to
keep it open so that it candrain. Yeah, that that blood has
somewhere to go, but you know, infection at that moment is at an
all time high, right, andso we've got to we've got to do
everything we can. I'm on Iv antibiotics for four days, you know,
just everything possible to make sure thatit's staying clean and doing that.
(06:46):
So, yeah, it was.It's still still to this day, like
if I see it, it's veryhard to imagine that that was my leg
because it wasn't very painful. Itprobably was pay for another day, but
I was up and walking. Iwas up and walking the very following day,
which is extremely bizarre. They andthey tell you too, because you
(07:10):
don't want to get that atrophy atthat leg. So uh, yeah,
it was. It was a verybizarre, high risk type of deal that
you know, in my mind,I woke up from surgery saying, ask
our train. I'm like, youknow, Tyler, we've got to have
a plan, Like give me aplan coming back. What is what are
we doing? You know? AndI want it all spelled out because you
(07:30):
know, I've been here before.I want to make sure this thing's done
tight. And uh, that's kindof been my mindset the whole time is
just attack, attack, attack,and you know that's that's in diet that's
in the weight room as much asI can. That's in keeping it clean
and just doing everything I can toyou know, get this thing back up
and running as fast as possible.So, Jordan, when they talk about
the worst case scenario in situations likethis regarding you know, again, the
(07:55):
worst of the worst is maybe evenyou know, losing a leg. It
has happened, I'm told before withthis condition. Is it from the infection
that that that that might okay sometimescause that eventuality or is it literally the
pressure itself? What is it whenpeople say, man, you know if
worst case scenario here, that's what'shappened to people? What causes it to
(08:18):
go to that extreme, which fortunatelyyou did not have to face. Yeah,
it's it's the pressure, which isyou know, very interesting. It's
it's that blood going and just poolingand creating so much pressure that blood flow
is restricted right to the area youknow you're losing. You could potentially lose
(08:39):
a limb, you know, ifit does, if you catch it before
that, you can lose muscle tissue, right because part of your calf,
part of your sin, uh,you know, those muscles might die because
they're not getting the blood and theoxygen that they need, you know,
the the nerve itself, the onethat you know, it runs down the
entire leg. You might end upwith drop foot, right, which is
(09:01):
what I was scared of in themoment because my foot was basically stuck in
that position. I had no nodorsyflection. So you know, there's there's
a whole, a whole uh,you know, a bunch of different things
that that can happen with this,you know, and big, big,
big shout out right. Obviously,I'm forever grateful for our trainers and and
(09:24):
our our medical staff, you know, the doctors, you know, just
making the making the call right,whether whether it was that or not making
the call to get me in intoand to you know, make sure nothing
serious was happening. It's it's somethingyou know, the average for anybody who's
in a medically difficult compromise position youtake for granted, but you can't because
(09:45):
the alertness, the of the therecognition right is so important as quickly as
possible, that you have people aroundwho know all this stuff and don't mess
around with it, right. Imean that, I'm sure that's something you'd
say, you're not going to takethat for granted again, right, right,
absolutely, And you know we've we'vehad these conversations in the training room
(10:07):
of Okay, what was what wouldhave happened if this was in an on
an away game, you know,and who knows? Like maybe I say,
forget it. I'm just gonna toughit out and try and get home
and hop on the plane. Andyou know, I don't want to stay
here and do all this, rightor or what happens if we're in Mexico
City when I'm playing this game,right, and our doctors don't have access
to their hospitals and I've got totrust to you know, a surgeon for
(10:31):
Mexico City, that's who knows thequalifications or whatnot. So you you go
through these scenarios and uh, youknow, it just adds layers to it.
And it adds layers to the factof how blessed I was to be
at home with doctor Cotilla, whois you know, world renowned in foot
and angle specialist, right, andit's just you know, top notch,
(10:52):
top notch doctor, and obviously havingour trainers on staff to make those calls,
and so yeah, it just addslayers to it. It's it's pretty
incredible. Okay, So, likeI said, this is that was on
November twelve. This is December eleven. I mean, we're basically at the
one month mark. What have thelast few weeks been like in terms of
your ability to test the thing andand and you know, to move around.
(11:16):
How ambulatory are you? How muchare you moving around at this point?
Yep? Yep. So last weekwas really the first week I was
back on my feet. This weekwe towards I was on land, moving
around pretty well, feeling extremely good, feeling ahead of schedule, feeling feeling
(11:37):
solid. And you know, mymindset, like I said, is a
tack attack attack. So they're kindof having to to try and hold me
back a bit because I'm chomping.I'm chomping the bit to get out there
as soon as possible. But youknow, there's there's check marks that we've
got to get off the list,you know, to make sure that I'm
ready to go for a game,because there's nothing that you can replicate for
(11:58):
an NFL game, right, So, uh, you know, things are
going really well. It's extremely encouraging. You know, we've we've we've had
a plan, We've stuck to theplan and Uh, you know, obviously
expectations are extremely high right now.Well, you know, it's interesting.
I mean, it's this is easyfor me to say because I'm not you,
(12:18):
but there's a part of me thatwould say, if I was related
to you, Jordan, let's notjust let's just play it slow, play
this man, and and and andand just you know, enjoy the rest
of this season the way it is, and you come back stronger for it
next year. Let's be ultra cautious. That doesn't seem like that's you're interested
(12:39):
in, uh, particularly that approach, But what about the doctors. Are
the doctors with you on pull pushingforward the way you are clearly trying to
get back on the field this season. Yeah, you know, we're everybody's
on the same page, and it'sbeen awesome communication since the very beginning.
That's not in my DNA, andeverybody, I think everybody who knows who
(13:01):
knows me, you know, understandsthat that's that's not who I am.
I've been you know, this wasobviously extremely extremely serious, right but I've
also been I look over every singleday on the next table and see Kirk
Cousins, who can't who has noopportunity to come back, right and cam
Akers who has no opportunity to comeback. And you know, I'm sitting
(13:24):
here extremely blessed to be in thesituation that I am, to have made
it onto the other side and tobe feeling as good as I am at
this point. And you know,I think for my for my sake,
for my mentality, right the attackmode to push it helps me, helps
me to know that I have anopportunity to be back there and and kind
(13:48):
of defy those odds. And youknow, I've I've been in those shoes
where you can't come back. AndI know it's the worst part of NFL
football is injuries. And uh,you know our defense is planning extremely well
right now. I want to bea part of that. I want to
continue to lead and continue to help. And you know, I love what
I do. I love playing football. You've been hurt before, Like you
(14:09):
said, We've talked about some ofyour other injuries, and obviously you you
you know how to sort of fightthrough this stuff. Was there a low
point for you mentally? I mean, where where was your head through this
whole period? Was ever a pointwhere, man, it was it was
really getting to you, even becauseyou're human and because it's such an unusual
(14:30):
set of circumstances a little bit scary. What was the low point for you
mentally, if there, if therewas one, Yeah, it's it's it's
very interesting there there really hasn't beena low point. Leaned a lot on
my faith, right'. I've leaneda tone of my family, you know,
and and the fact that I've hada plan and something to work for
(14:52):
and something to work towards. ButI've always had a goal of mine and
I've always had I've always had kindof a structure on how to get there.
And uh, I know me,me in my personality, as long
as I have that and I've gotsomething to work towards, right, I
can I can lock one on that. And so I think there's been a
moment of excuse me, of soberingunderstanding of what actually took place, right,
(15:20):
that wasn't I came out of surgeryand was kind of kind of ignorant
and it took a little time foreverything to settle in of like, wow,
I really life could have changed,right. I've got three kids,
you know, and yeah, withthe thought of me not having a leg
and doing all the things that I'veever imagined doing with my children and and
(15:41):
you know, as they grow upin the life that I've always imagined,
Potentially not having that because of thisinjury was very sobering. But I you
know again, I don't I don'tlive in fear. I don't live you
know, in a way of ofof you know, not attack mode,
not not continue pushing forward. Andso you know, I think that's how
(16:03):
I was raised, and that's themodel that I also want to show my
family and my kids. How howare you watching your team play? As
you say, the defense has beenabsurdly good. One touchdown allowed I think
now in the last twelve quarters ofplay. So is it hard to watch?
(16:23):
Uh? Do you love watching?You? Like? You know,
is it tough being a fan?What's what's game day Sundays? What have
they been like for For Jordan Hicks, It's never It's never easy watching from
home, Right. I'm around theseguys all day every day. I'm going
to meetings and doing stuff and youknow, you I understand the game plan,
I know what's going on, andyou know, for them, and
(16:45):
then on Saturdays it's we go twodifferent directions. They're on a plane and
I'm at home. Uh, It'sit's never fun. You always you always
feel like you could you could beout there helping, and you know you
want to enjoy it. What youit's what you do this for. But
yeah, there's definitely a different perspective, especially the last couple of weeks.
(17:06):
Right, you get the fans sideof the possible boring game, right,
the game of defense. Right,you see you see like you want the
action, but at the same time, I'm like, man, our defense
is playing. You know, I'vegot a different investment in this defense than
ninety nine percent of the people inthe world. And so I you know,
(17:29):
I see, I see what's goingon in the defense and it hlpes
me up. So definitely conflicted.But you know, every every week I
come back in and it's it's justfind a way to win. Right,
as helpless as I feel sitting athome, all you're doing is begging for
these guys. Just find a wayto win, and and you know that's
what that's what we're able to dothis week. Last item for you,
(17:49):
do you do you do you eventry to have a target date or is
that too specific? Is that toodangerous? In expecting too much, too
fast, or how are you approachingthat? Yeah, I mean, honestly,
I have one in my mind,of course, but you know,
there's things that have to have totake place, you know, in order
(18:11):
for that to happen, and it'salong the road. You don't want to
have a setback, right, Sothere's a balance between you know, just
doing things the right way and pushingthat as much as possible. And so
you know, I'm not going tosit here and say that I expect to
be out this day. You know, in my mind, I want to
be out a certain time as soonas possible. But you know, again,
(18:33):
there's a lot of things that haveto happen in order for that.
I mean, is it how doyou even get you know, if there's
limits to what you can do asyou're as you're reaching these benchmarks, testing
things. I mean, is thatanother challenge is keeping yourself in football shape?
Yeah, and we're uh, yeah, we're pushing. We're pushing my
(18:55):
lunch pretty good right now. So, uh, every day I come home
and I tell you I'm out,Wow, we're pushing up pretty good.
It sounds like you're pushing pretty good, right It sounds like you're you you're
deep down you want to push itmore than perhaps more than even they want
to do it. Right. Yeah, that's it, that's that's what makes
(19:15):
you you. By the way,do they still have you on antibiotics as
a precaution? Is that over?How this thing is? This thing is
closed excellent, completely closed up,outstanding. Well, it's great to hear
your voice. Man. We wemissed having you on and we look forward
to getting back into a rhythm.Regardless of the of of how quickly you
(19:36):
can get out there. We hopewe can do that on a regular basis
as well, because you can giveus a unique perspective whether you're playing or
not. But I know that's whatyou want to do. And uh,
no doubt. I'm sure you feltthe affection around here in respect that people
already have for you, and andand and going through what was obviously a
very serious, sobering, as yousay, sobering situation. So uh,
(19:57):
the best to you and the family, and again, thanks for giving us
the time today, and we'll hopefullytalk soon. Absolutely talk to you next
week. Thanks. Man. Thatis a Vikings linebacker Jordan Hicks. First
time we've had a chance to catchup with him. Really since he went down
Jordan Hicks joins us via the ConnecticoWater Systems hotline. Thank you for some
time, and I hope you aredoing well, sir. It's been a
long time since we've had a chanceto chat. Man, too long,
too long. Appreciate you having meas always, and yeah, excited to
be back on here. Well,it's great to have you on. And
(00:20):
we've been thinking about you a lot. The saga has been fairly well reported,
but I do want to try toget in the weeds on it a
little bit in terms of what youhave been enduring. And I actually want
to go back to the beginning,if we can't, to the play itself
on which you got hurt and whetherat that moment you felt like God,
(00:41):
this is bad or what happened onthat play just kind of put us back
at the beginning, what started thiswhole saga for you. Yeah, So
it was a play where I wasgetting off a block and making a side
tackle on Camara. Legs whip around, you know, and it's happened sometimes
(01:03):
cam Binen comes in for a squaretackle and my leg just whips right into
his knee. The moment it happened, I knew, I knew it was
you know, I felt it.I felt it. It was it didn't
feel good. I hobbled around.They were going, they were going pretty
quick. I ended up staying inthat next plan, literally hobbled the entire
play, uh, trying to pursuethe ball came off of the field and
(01:27):
you know, went into the bluetent. Did everything there checked out right,
still had strength, still still wasable to move on it, even
though I felt that it just feltyou know, it felt like a bruise,
right, if anybody's ever had athy bruise, you know, any
type of calf bruise or anything thatthat happens, right, it's something that
that sucks in the moment. Butyou know, you think that it's just
(01:51):
going to continue to just it's allyou got to do is just push in
the pen and you'll be fine.So that's what I did. I came
back, uh two drives later,you know, played played on it the
rest of the half, came outthe third quarter, kept it warm,
was doing everything everything I could,and then my last drive out there,
it was it was very it wasvery different than the previous drives. It
(02:15):
was losing strength. I almost rolledmy ankle out. I'm pretty sure.
I did roll my ankle twice onthat drive making a tackle of the backfield
covering a guy downfield. Just therewas nothing left. And that's kind of
the message I relayed when when Icame off of the field, you know,
to our trainers, I was like, I've got nothing less in this
thing, Like I can't even Icouldn't even lift my foot in the moment.
(02:37):
Yeah, it was, it was, you know, and that's that's
part of the scare, right.I was naive to the fact of how
serious it could be. The doctors, the the the trainers, they they
did a great job. They knewthe whole time. They sent me back
into the training room, and atthat moment, once the adrenaline from the
game left, the pain, Ijust absolutely ramped up, and uh,
(03:00):
the pain. Pain I've never feltin my life. It was completely it
was just it was excruciating, verydifferent from anything I've ever experienced. And
you know, it just kind ofthroughout the process of that night didn't go
away, no matter what kind ofpainments they put me on, no matter
you know, in the ambulance onthey took me to the ambulance or to
the hospital, and the ambulance becauseit was you know, they were like,
(03:23):
we got to get in there now. I can't waste time with this
thing. And even in the ambulancewhen they gave me the real drugs,
I still was still was in excruciatingpain. So just a just a wild
and freak, you know incident.I meane, thousands of tackles in my
life and never you know, hadanything, never even heard of this before
before I had it. So,yeah, your condition, like you said,
(03:44):
you just you you your football player. You you play through it,
not not stupidly, but you say, well, I've you know, I
felt this before. I'll just giveit some time and it'll get better.
At what point do you become awareof this thing called compartment syndrome? When
do they make it you aware ofit? And and so and when did
this because I assume that's all relatedto swelling, When did the swelling take
(04:05):
place? In terms of the pointwhere you're you get the feeling that they're
worried for you, They're getting scared, and they will they are taking these
extra steps to be sure as precautionthat this thing doesn't go really bad.
Yeah, it was. It wasso the entire time it was swelling.
Right. One of the questions Iasked was, did me playing on this,
(04:29):
you know, make it worse interms of the swelling. And you
know, if I wouldn't have playedwith the bleeding have stopped. Right,
The bleeding didn't stop for three straightdays, right that they cut my leg
open and they left it open forfour days. It was and it was
in the moment of me being backthere and just being in pain and not
being able to get comfortable, andyou know, I think that was kind
(04:51):
of the key in determining factor.And the whole thing was, you know,
the pain is going to set in, right if that blood and that
that pooling has nowhere to go,uh, and if it continues to bleed,
it's going to continue to get worse. And I think at that point
they were like, all right,this thing is serious. And they told
me, you know, when wewere heading to the hospital, Duck said,
(05:14):
you know, we're gonna make anincision. We're going to see and
if if if it's if it's whatwe think it could be, you might
have a foot long scar on yourleg. And uh woke up, woke
up from surgery, and that's whatI had. Oh my god, and
so when they're leaving it open,I mean, are you what what kind
of pain are you in at thatpoint? How worried are you at that
(05:38):
point? Do you feel like,Okay, no, they know what they're
doing here, this is this ispart of the process and this will get
better. I mean, what whatwhat were you thinking at that point?
And I don't be grizzly about it, but are you can you see all
of this or are you not lookingat it? Because it would seem like
it would be even if you're notsqueamish, it would seem to be like
(05:58):
something you're not gonna want to fixateon. Yeah, no, I didn't.
My wife has a has a pictureof it. All the trainers have
a picture of it. I haveseen that picture maybe three times since it
happened, and a couple of timeson accident. Uh in the moment,
No, I was not. Itwas fully dressed, right, They're they're
doing everything uh in their in theiryou know, ability to keep infection out.
(06:24):
That was kind of the biggest thing. You know, They've got to
keep it open so that it candrain. Yeah, that that blood has
somewhere to go, but you know, infection at that moment is at an
all time high, right, andso we've got to we've got to do
everything we can. I'm on Iv antibiotics for four days, you know,
just everything possible to make sure thatit's staying clean and doing that.
(06:46):
So, yeah, it was.It's still still to this day, like
if I see it, it's veryhard to imagine that that was my leg
because it wasn't very painful. Itprobably was pay for another day, but
I was up and walking. Iwas up and walking the very following day,
which is extremely bizarre. They andthey tell you too, because you
(07:10):
don't want to get that atrophy atthat leg. So uh, yeah,
it was. It was a verybizarre, high risk type of deal that
you know, in my mind,I woke up from surgery saying, ask
our train. I'm like, youknow, Tyler, we've got to have
a plan, Like give me aplan coming back. What is what are
we doing? You know? AndI want it all spelled out because you
(07:30):
know, I've been here before.I want to make sure this thing's done
tight. And uh, that's kindof been my mindset the whole time is
just attack, attack, attack,and you know that's that's in diet that's
in the weight room as much asI can. That's in keeping it clean
and just doing everything I can toyou know, get this thing back up
and running as fast as possible.So, Jordan, when they talk about
the worst case scenario in situations likethis regarding you know, again, the
(07:55):
worst of the worst is maybe evenyou know, losing a leg. It
has happened, I'm told before withthis condition. Is it from the infection
that that that that might okay sometimescause that eventuality or is it literally the
pressure itself? What is it whenpeople say, man, you know if
worst case scenario here, that's what'shappened to people? What causes it to
(08:18):
go to that extreme, which fortunatelyyou did not have to face. Yeah,
it's it's the pressure, which isyou know, very interesting. It's
it's that blood going and just poolingand creating so much pressure that blood flow
is restricted right to the area youknow you're losing. You could potentially lose
(08:39):
a limb, you know, ifit does, if you catch it before
that, you can lose muscle tissue, right because part of your calf,
part of your sin, uh,you know, those muscles might die because
they're not getting the blood and theoxygen that they need, you know,
the the nerve itself, the onethat you know, it runs down the
entire leg. You might end upwith drop foot, right, which is
(09:01):
what I was scared of in themoment because my foot was basically stuck in
that position. I had no nodorsyflection. So you know, there's there's
a whole, a whole uh,you know, a bunch of different things
that that can happen with this,you know, and big, big,
big shout out right. Obviously,I'm forever grateful for our trainers and and
(09:24):
our our medical staff, you know, the doctors, you know, just
making the making the call right,whether whether it was that or not making
the call to get me in intoand to you know, make sure nothing
serious was happening. It's it's somethingyou know, the average for anybody who's
in a medically difficult compromise position youtake for granted, but you can't because
(09:45):
the alertness, the of the therecognition right is so important as quickly as
possible, that you have people aroundwho know all this stuff and don't mess
around with it, right. Imean that, I'm sure that's something you'd
say, you're not going to takethat for granted again, right, right,
absolutely, And you know we've we'vehad these conversations in the training room
(10:07):
of Okay, what was what wouldhave happened if this was in an on
an away game, you know,and who knows? Like maybe I say,
forget it. I'm just gonna toughit out and try and get home
and hop on the plane. Andyou know, I don't want to stay
here and do all this, rightor or what happens if we're in Mexico
City when I'm playing this game,right, and our doctors don't have access
to their hospitals and I've got totrust to you know, a surgeon for
(10:31):
Mexico City, that's who knows thequalifications or whatnot. So you you go
through these scenarios and uh, youknow, it just adds layers to it.
And it adds layers to the factof how blessed I was to be
at home with doctor Cotilla, whois you know, world renowned in foot
and angle specialist, right, andit's just you know, top notch,
(10:52):
top notch doctor, and obviously havingour trainers on staff to make those calls,
and so yeah, it just addslayers to it. It's it's pretty
incredible. Okay, So, likeI said, this is that was on
November twelve. This is December eleven. I mean, we're basically at the
one month mark. What have thelast few weeks been like in terms of
your ability to test the thing andand and you know, to move around.
(11:16):
How ambulatory are you? How muchare you moving around at this point?
Yep? Yep. So last weekwas really the first week I was
back on my feet. This weekwe towards I was on land, moving
around pretty well, feeling extremely good, feeling ahead of schedule, feeling feeling
(11:37):
solid. And you know, mymindset, like I said, is a
tack attack attack. So they're kindof having to to try and hold me
back a bit because I'm chomping.I'm chomping the bit to get out there
as soon as possible. But youknow, there's there's check marks that we've
got to get off the list,you know, to make sure that I'm
ready to go for a game,because there's nothing that you can replicate for
(11:58):
an NFL game, right, So, uh, you know, things are
going really well. It's extremely encouraging. You know, we've we've we've had
a plan, We've stuck to theplan and Uh, you know, obviously
expectations are extremely high right now.Well, you know, it's interesting.
I mean, it's this is easyfor me to say because I'm not you,
(12:18):
but there's a part of me thatwould say, if I was related
to you, Jordan, let's notjust let's just play it slow, play
this man, and and and andand just you know, enjoy the rest
of this season the way it is, and you come back stronger for it
next year. Let's be ultra cautious. That doesn't seem like that's you're interested
(12:39):
in, uh, particularly that approach, But what about the doctors. Are
the doctors with you on pull pushingforward the way you are clearly trying to
get back on the field this season. Yeah, you know, we're everybody's
on the same page, and it'sbeen awesome communication since the very beginning.
That's not in my DNA, andeverybody, I think everybody who knows who
(13:01):
knows me, you know, understandsthat that's that's not who I am.
I've been you know, this wasobviously extremely extremely serious, right but I've
also been I look over every singleday on the next table and see Kirk
Cousins, who can't who has noopportunity to come back, right and cam
Akers who has no opportunity to comeback. And you know, I'm sitting
(13:24):
here extremely blessed to be in thesituation that I am, to have made
it onto the other side and tobe feeling as good as I am at
this point. And you know,I think for my for my sake,
for my mentality, right the attackmode to push it helps me, helps
me to know that I have anopportunity to be back there and and kind
(13:48):
of defy those odds. And youknow, I've I've been in those shoes
where you can't come back. AndI know it's the worst part of NFL
football is injuries. And uh,you know our defense is planning extremely well
right now. I want to bea part of that. I want to
continue to lead and continue to help. And you know, I love what
I do. I love playing football. You've been hurt before, Like you
(14:09):
said, We've talked about some ofyour other injuries, and obviously you you
you know how to sort of fightthrough this stuff. Was there a low
point for you mentally? I mean, where where was your head through this
whole period? Was ever a pointwhere, man, it was it was
really getting to you, even becauseyou're human and because it's such an unusual
(14:30):
set of circumstances a little bit scary. What was the low point for you
mentally, if there, if therewas one, Yeah, it's it's it's
very interesting there there really hasn't beena low point. Leaned a lot on
my faith, right'. I've leaneda tone of my family, you know,
and and the fact that I've hada plan and something to work for
(14:52):
and something to work towards. ButI've always had a goal of mine and
I've always had I've always had kindof a structure on how to get there.
And uh, I know me,me in my personality, as long
as I have that and I've gotsomething to work towards, right, I
can I can lock one on that. And so I think there's been a
moment of excuse me, of soberingunderstanding of what actually took place, right,
(15:20):
that wasn't I came out of surgeryand was kind of kind of ignorant
and it took a little time foreverything to settle in of like, wow,
I really life could have changed,right. I've got three kids,
you know, and yeah, withthe thought of me not having a leg
and doing all the things that I'veever imagined doing with my children and and
(15:41):
you know, as they grow upin the life that I've always imagined,
Potentially not having that because of thisinjury was very sobering. But I you
know again, I don't I don'tlive in fear. I don't live you
know, in a way of ofof you know, not attack mode,
not not continue pushing forward. Andso you know, I think that's how
(16:03):
I was raised, and that's themodel that I also want to show my
family and my kids. How howare you watching your team play? As
you say, the defense has beenabsurdly good. One touchdown allowed I think
now in the last twelve quarters ofplay. So is it hard to watch?
(16:23):
Uh? Do you love watching?You? Like? You know,
is it tough being a fan?What's what's game day Sundays? What have
they been like for For Jordan Hicks, It's never It's never easy watching from
home, Right. I'm around theseguys all day every day. I'm going
to meetings and doing stuff and youknow, you I understand the game plan,
I know what's going on, andyou know, for them, and
(16:45):
then on Saturdays it's we go twodifferent directions. They're on a plane and
I'm at home. Uh, It'sit's never fun. You always you always
feel like you could you could beout there helping, and you know you
want to enjoy it. What youit's what you do this for. But
yeah, there's definitely a different perspective, especially the last couple of weeks.
(17:06):
Right, you get the fans sideof the possible boring game, right,
the game of defense. Right,you see you see like you want the
action, but at the same time, I'm like, man, our defense
is playing. You know, I'vegot a different investment in this defense than
ninety nine percent of the people inthe world. And so I you know,
(17:29):
I see, I see what's goingon in the defense and it hlpes
me up. So definitely conflicted.But you know, every every week I
come back in and it's it's justfind a way to win. Right,
as helpless as I feel sitting athome, all you're doing is begging for
these guys. Just find a wayto win, and and you know that's
what that's what we're able to dothis week. Last item for you,
(17:49):
do you do you do you eventry to have a target date or is
that too specific? Is that toodangerous? In expecting too much, too
fast, or how are you approachingthat? Yeah, I mean, honestly,
I have one in my mind,of course, but you know,
there's things that have to have totake place, you know, in order
(18:11):
for that to happen, and it'salong the road. You don't want to
have a setback, right, Sothere's a balance between you know, just
doing things the right way and pushingthat as much as possible. And so
you know, I'm not going tosit here and say that I expect to
be out this day. You know, in my mind, I want to
be out a certain time as soonas possible. But you know, again,
(18:33):
there's a lot of things that haveto happen in order for that.
I mean, is it how doyou even get you know, if there's
limits to what you can do asyou're as you're reaching these benchmarks, testing
things. I mean, is thatanother challenge is keeping yourself in football shape?
Yeah, and we're uh, yeah, we're pushing. We're pushing my
(18:55):
lunch pretty good right now. So, uh, every day I come home
and I tell you I'm out,Wow, we're pushing up pretty good.
It sounds like you're pushing pretty good, right It sounds like you're you you're
deep down you want to push itmore than perhaps more than even they want
to do it. Right. Yeah, that's it, that's that's what makes
(19:15):
you you. By the way,do they still have you on antibiotics as
a precaution? Is that over?How this thing is? This thing is
closed excellent, completely closed up,outstanding. Well, it's great to hear
your voice. Man. We wemissed having you on and we look forward
to getting back into a rhythm.Regardless of the of of how quickly you
(19:36):
can get out there. We hopewe can do that on a regular basis
as well, because you can giveus a unique perspective whether you're playing or
not. But I know that's whatyou want to do. And uh,
no doubt. I'm sure you feltthe affection around here in respect that people
already have for you, and andand and going through what was obviously a
very serious, sobering, as yousay, sobering situation. So uh,
(19:57):
the best to you and the family, and again, thanks for giving us
the time today, and we'll hopefullytalk soon. Absolutely talk to you next
week. Thanks. Man. Thatis a Vikings linebacker Jordan Hicks. First
time we've had a chance to catchup with him. Really since he went down
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