No lie: King says he’ll be ready for Bears

Sidelined for one day shy of a month with a hamstring injury, Green Bay Packers cornerback Kevin King returned to practice on Sunday and said he’d be ready for the Chicago Bears on Thursday night.

“I’m going to be out there,” King proclaimed.

That seems like quite a feat. King practiced on Family Night on Aug. 2 but was sidelined for the joint practices against the Houston Texans and all four preseason games. Is playing in a game – a rivalry game, no less – realistic on merely three practices?

“I don’t really tell too many lies,” King said.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” he added.

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King said this injury was to his right hamstring. Last year, he missed the final eight games with an injured left hamstring.

Injuries, of course, have been the story of his career. The team’s top pick in 2017, he’s started only 11 of a possible 32 games and played 32.5 percent of the defensive snaps. After going on injured reserve for the final four weeks of last season, he discussed the need to become a better pro.

“When you come into the league, you have a childish mind-set,” King said during OTAs. “You’re coming from college, where everything is so structured. You do this, this, this, basically 50 weeks out of the year. You’ve got no money. Then you come to the NFL, you’re a high draft pick, you give a guy X amount of money, you give a guy months off, and after your rookie season, you’ve got months off. And it’s easy to get lost in the sauce on things. Because there’s nobody telling you what to do. But then, you’ve got to figure it out. And it comes with time, with trial and error. You need to rest. You need to enjoy yourself. You need to have fun. You need to unplug. Those are things you absolutely should be doing. But how much of that do you do? Or maybe working out too much? You have to have that balance – and growth. You have to learn what works for you.”

To that end, he cut out a lot of his offseason travel so he could get into a stable training regimen. Believing he had done all the right things, King entered training camp with unbridled optimism about his third season. Instead, he was injured again.

Fortunately for King and the Packers, King only missed the preseason. The real games begin on Thursday, and King has a simple but elusive goal for 2019.

“Try and play all 19 games and win on Feb. 2. That’s what I want,” he said.

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