Coach – Lions’ Morice Norris in concussion protocol, ‘doing well’

ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Detroit Lions safety Morice Norris is back with the team and has entered the concussion protocol after suffering a scary injury in Friday’s preseason game at Atlanta.

“Obviously, Mo’s back with us. He’s doing well,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said Monday. “It’s good to have him back and he’s good. He’s in concussion protocol. We’re gonna take it nice and easy here to make sure he’s good over the next, call it 10 to 14 days and reassess, so that’s good news.”

It was a horrifying scene at the beginning of the fourth quarter, as Morris was carted off the field and put in an ambulance. His head snapped back as he went down while attempting to tackle Falcons running back Nathan Carter.

The officiating crew announced that the game was suspended after Campbell and Atlanta coach Raheem Morris decided not to finish the contest. Players from both teams joined hands in unison to show support for Norris as he received medical attention on the field.

“Raheem and I agreed that was what we were going to do. We talked to [NFL official] Shawn Hochuli, who let us know that ‘the game was still on.’ And we communicated with each other,” Campbell said. “We told Shawn we’d be taking knees, and he said, ‘I understand.’ And that’s the way it went, and the game was called.”

After the injury, Norris was transported to the Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta for observation and he returned to stable condition while regaining feeling and movement in all his extremities. Two days later, he returned to the Lions’ practice facility with teammates after sharing that he was “good” via social media, while thanking everyone for their support. Campbell was happy to see him back.

“Everybody was fired up to see him. It’s a breath of fresh air. That’s hard when something like that happens and you don’t know,” Campbell said. “I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve see guys with concussions, knocked out. I’ve had them myself.

“But, when you have these, and you don’t know … you know they’re breathing, but you don’t know anything else and they’re gone, it’s a little different because you’re trying to block that out but yet it’s still there,” he said. “So, that’s makes it a little more difficult and that’s why it’s out of the norm.”