It’s a familiar sight to see stories about a player returning to practice late in the preseason with designs on being ready to play when the regular season gets underway.
Those stories usually feature hamstring pulls or sprained ankles rather than gunshot wounds to the calf, however, so that makes Vikings defensive tackle Linval Joseph’s situation pretty unusual. Joseph was at a nightclub on August 7 when someone opened fire, hitting Joseph and eight other people. Joseph spoke publicly about the incident for the first time on Tuesday and said that he knows he was lucky to emerge with a relatively minor injury.
“It was very scary,” Joseph said, via the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “Now, I just look at every day differently because your life flashes in front of you in the situation that happened. I’m just glad I have the opportunity to do what I love.”
Joseph won’t play on Thursday night and hasn’t practiced in pads since returning to the field, leaving the September 7 opener against the Rams as his goal. Joseph said he will be “full go” next week to prepare for that contest and expects to be ready to play a month after taking a bullet.