BALTIMORE — Jets defensive tackle Harrison Phillips could barely walk after last week’s loss to the Patriots.
Phillips was dealing with a foot injury, the severity of which he can’t reveal, but it is serious enough that he was in a walking boot before and after the game.
Somehow, Phillips managed to play 41 snaps against the Patriots and play well.
“I’ve played through a lot of things in my career,” Phillips said. “Last week I was going into that game with a lot of pain, maybe top three or four games that I was walking into with a lot of pain. I love this game a lot. I’m willing to do drastic things for the game. With the passions and emotions and adrenaline that comes with a football game with some modern medicine, I can get away doing it.”
Phillips was limited in practice again this week but expects to play against the Ravens.
The 29-year-old is a veteran when it comes to playing through pain.
He said in his career he has played through a torn labrum, chronic back pain, a ruptured plate in his foot, a torn meniscus, dislocated fingers and last season a gash on his chin that opened up every time he buckled his chin strap.
“It’s the nature of playing nose guard in the NFL,” Phillip said.
Most players in the NFL are dealing with some kind of injury by this point in the season, but Phillips’ injury seems worse than usual wear and tear.
He did not practice before the Patriots game other than making sure he could get into his stance.
The emotions of the game carried him through the Thursday night tilt.
“I think as the game went on I felt it less, more adrenaline and there’s so many other distractions that I wasn’t thinking about that as much,” Phillips said.
After the game, he sat in the cold tub. When he got out, the pain returned.
“I realized I can’t really walk,” Phillips said.
Phillips has been a key acquisition for the Jets, who traded for him in training camp.
He has been a solid piece of the defensive line and even more important now with Quinnen Williams gone.
“He’s a hell of a player,” coach Aaron Glenn said. “I love that we have him, I do, because he’s the type of guy that can teach the other guys exactly what it is to play defensive lineman.”
The Jets activated LB Marcelino McCrary-Ball off of injured reserve and released LB Ja’Markis Weston.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
