While you aren’t supposed to take players to the ground in NFL practices, especially joint practices, but there are still some pretty hard hits standing up, and that is what you saw today when Jets safety Chuck Clark popped Panther RB Chuba Hubbard on a pass over the middle.
It’s a hit you might have been able to hear a few blocks away from the Panther practice field in downtown Charlotte, but it was 100 percent legal.
Hubbard fell to the turf after the play holding his knee. It initially looked bad. We will see what the medical tests determine and will likely know more in the next couple of days. The Panthers are optimistic it wasn’t as serious as it looked.
To the credit of Panthers coach Dave Canales (pictured above), he did not blame Clark for what happened.
“It was a real-time collision there,” Canales said. “It wasn’t a dirty hit. It was two guys faced up on each other. And his foot kind of gave out from underneath him.”
This play shows that even when you do everything right and follow the rules in NFL practices to protect fellow players, teammates or foes, there are still going to be injuries in football.
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