Lions head coach Jim Schwartz played coy about the likelihood of running back Kevin Smith being able to play with his injured shoulder Sunday at Chicago.
“There’s a big difference in non-padded practices on Thursday and Friday and an NFL football game,” Schwatz pointed out, according to Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press. “Still got a long way to go. We’ll know a little bit more tomorrow, maybe a little bit more Sunday morning.”
Reporters in Detroit found out a lot sooner than Schwartz expected.
Speaking to Tom Kowalski of MLive.com, Smith said after working out Friday, “I’m going to play. It’s football so I’m sure I’ll have to endure some pain, but it’s good enough to go. I feel healthy enough to play at a high level. I wouldn’t go out there and [practice Thursday and Friday] and not play.”
Of course, Schwartz will be pumped to hear that his running back is feeling so confident of being able to play. So pumped, that he’ll likely approach Smith at some point to ask him why he hid such valuable information from his head coach.
I’m sure they’ll get to the bottom of it.