Packers LT David Bakhtiari on Falcons, Saints, Future Turf Games
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari’s decision to not play against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday had nothing to do with taking a stand against artificial turf, despite what a tweet from his brother indicated.
“If I wasn’t going to play on turf, I’d probably make more of a ruckus,” Bakhtiari said on Wednesday. “My brother (Eric) loves drama and he told me he was going to do it and I’m like, ‘Go right ahead, I don’t give a shit. I don’t care what you do. It’s your social media.’ No, that was not the reason. At all. I clearly have an injury I’ve been dealing with.”
Passionate as always, Bakhtiari didn’t appreciate the speculation that he ditched his teammates as a form of protest.
“I would never leave them hanging out to dry,” Bakhtiari said. “I signed up to play. I plan on playing. And when I can play, I’m going to play. Clearly, if I’m not playing, there’s something going on. It’s not like it’s been a secret. It’s something I’ve been battling with and it’s been shitty. It’s been weighing on me a lot.
“You think I don’t want to play? You think I want to be a great football player and then just disappear? (Heck) no. I appreciate Gutey [general manager Brian Gutekunst]. We’ve had plenty of talks. He’s been amazing with me and being even able to vent to him about it. It’s just been extremely stressful. But the human side, just been sitting here quietly and saying whatever it is, I just have to take it for what it is.”
Bakhtiari played every meaningful snap of the Week 1 victory over the Chicago Bears. He wasn’t on the final injury report of that week but was listed as questionable for Sunday at Atlanta. Coach Matt LaFleur said that likely would be the designation for the rest of the week because of the never-ending certainty.
Will Bakhtiari be ready to go for Sunday’s home game against the New Orleans Saints? How about a short week for a Thursday night home game against the Detroit Lions?
At this point, nobody knows. Not even Bakhtiari.
Will Packers LT David Bakhtiari play against the Saints?
Photo by Jamie Sabau/USA Today Sports Images
“I would never rule that out,” he said of playing two games in five days at Lambeau. “This could be the only game I miss. I don’t know. I’m just making sure I check my boxes and I’m able and ready and then, when it is, great, go out and play. It’s shitty. I mean, I don’t know. Maybe when I’m retired, I’ll give you guys the full details, but there’s only so much I feel I can give without giving up a competitive advantage.”
When Bakhtiari is on the field, he gives the Packers a tremendous advantage. In his 11 starts last year, he didn’t give up a sack. He didn’t give up one against Chicago, either. The trouble is getting him to the field.
When Bakhtiari got to train all offseason for football rather than rehab surgery, and then when he practiced throughout OTAs, it led to optimism that he might be ready to progress into the next phase of his career.
“I think there’s a lot of things that do work,” Bakhtiari said of the approach taken by him, the coaches and the medical staff. “I think it’s just tweaking, fine-tuning, being on the same page with doc and the training room and with the coaches to make sure that, are we doing everything we can to make me available on Sunday?”
Bakhtiari said he hasn’t seriously considered retirement. He’s also not a fan of knee braces – they’re great for blunt trauma but bad for hamstring circulation and fatiguing the lower leg.
So, Bakhtiari will do what he can to play this week. And next week. And in second-half-of-the-season turf games against the Lions, Giants and Vikings over the final seven weeks.
Yes, Bakhtiari "absolutely" hopes he can play in those games. And before he does, he plans to continue the battle against a surface he believes puts the players more in harm’s way than necessary.
“There will come a point where turf, it’ll be like, ‘Damn, Dave, I’m glad he was one of the few guys who spoke about it and this is something we don’t have to deal with anymore,” Bakhtiari said. “The game’s already violent enough. All I’m saying is don’t add more to it. I’m not saying you’re going to cure all injuries. No, we (expletive) collide against each other and smash against each other.
“There’s certain injuries that are going to happen, period. You don’t have to be a doctor to know that. We all know what we sign up for when we play this game. I’m just saying, we want to talk about, ‘Make the game safer.’ You want your kids to play, probably be a little bit smarter with them. If you’re already going to sign them up to go smash their bodies into oblivion, you probably don’t want to do it on hard surfaces. You want to make it a little bit easier. That’s it. That’s all I’m saying from my vantage point. For all the young guys, they’re going to be the ones to see it.”
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