Matt LaFleur hasn’t coached his first NFL game yet.
But he already knows how to turn an injury report into an object lesson.
Via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Packers coach turned his own blown Achilles from a basketball game last week into something with a moral.
“We’re all going to face a little bit of adversity,” LaFleur said. “You can’t let it hold us back. So that’s just kind of like my mindset, you know? It is what it is and you make the best out of whatever situation comes.”
LaFleur is having surgery today, and will be coaching from a cart through the rest of OTAs and minicamp. He was able to throw the first pitch in a charity softball game last night, while wearing a walking boot. The 39-year-old head coach said he knew immediately the injury was a significant one.
“A couple weeks ago I kind of tweaked my calf on the other side,” he said. “But this one, I knew immediately. It was way more forceful. I thought somebody hit me in the leg. I looked around and nobody’s by me. It’s just one of those deals. We’ll rebound. We’ll be back.”
Wide receiver Davante Adams said he couldn’t see anything different in LaFleur’s approach during practice, despite the fact he wasn’t on his own two feet.
“He was out there on his golf cart the other day so he was still pretty mobile,” Adams said. “He was still rolling up next to me and coaching up and doing the same things. I don’t think it’s really going to stop him too much from the way he kind of does things. He’s always around. And it’s a good thing. It’s a good way to get a feel for the type of guy he is.
“It obviously shows how much the game means to him and with being an offense that he’s really comfortable with and been in for a while, he sees it a certain way. He sees it, so it’s not always, he’ll come up to me saying ‘I need you to run this better’ but asking me how I feel about things and just interacting and stuff like that. I see it being pretty consistent.”
And he’s not going to let a basketball injury stop him.