'Anger' and 'Frustration' Fueling Micah Parsons Through Grueling ACL Rehab
Could he be even better than he was before? Don't put it past him.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Everything seemed to unravel on Dec. 14.
The Green Bay Packers’ 9-3-1 record and four-game winning streak no longer seemed to matter. They were on the doorstep of positioning themselves as the No. 1 seed in the NFC and had the Denver Broncos—the top-seeded team in the AFC and likely Super Bowl favorites—on the ropes. Jordan Love was performing at the level of an MVP candidate and had just led a three-play, 71-yard touchdown drive immediately following the halftime break that gave the Packers a two-score lead.
And yet, none of that seemed to matter.
Starting right tackle Zach Tom—who has since changed his name to Zach Bako Bewele—left the game late in the first half with what would ultimately be a season-ending partially torn patellar tendon. Love’s first-and-10 deep ball on the Packers’ second possession of the third quarter was intercepted by Patrick Surtain—Christian Watson was injured during the collision downfield and had to be transported to a Denver-area hospital with chest and shoulder injuries.
At the epicenter of the storm, however, was All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons, suffering an injury that would cost him the remainder of his first campaign in Green Bay and a chunk of his second, too. The Packers wouldn’t win another game, losing their final four regular-season contests, as well as their Wild Card bout with the Chicago Bears.
“It’s hard to really think about it,” Parsons said, holding court in front of his locker on Tuesday for a near-20-minute session with the media.
Parsons beat Broncos right tackle Mike McGlinchey on an inside rush in his pursuit of quarterback Bo Nix. Nix stopped abruptly to dump the ball into the flat for Marvin Mims Jr.
Almost in unison, Parsons also stopped abruptly. His left cleat fiercely dug into the grass, and the momentum of his bodyweight placed an abnormal amount of stress on his left knee, tearing his anterior cruciate ligament. There wasn’t anything he could’ve done differently—it was the culmination of a long season and constant churning of a body that never seemed to rest.
“I just think it was cumulative things within my body—pushing through, no camp, dealing with injuries throughout the season. I just think my body was overloaded, and that caused my knee to give out,” said Parsons. “I don’t really think about why the situation happened. Based on how I feel at this point, I feel like a much better player. I feel more stable; I feel stronger. I was probably blind to a lot of things I should have been working on that I got the chance to correct and get stronger on during this process.
“For the longevity of my career—it’s almost like baseball. I talked to a baseball guy, and he said, ‘We want a pitcher to go through the Tommy John because he got it out of the way.’ Hopefully, I got my injury out of the way, and based on what [the doctor] said, I can get another six to ten years. I’m really excited about that.”
