Quay Walker's tunnel walk
This has bothered me...but maybe not for why it bothered others.
In the final regular season NFL game, Packers DE Quay Walker inexplicably shoved a trainer for the Detroit Lions and was summarily ejected from the game. It made him the only player to be ejected from two separate games this year.
It should be noted that this behavior would always warrant ejection, but felt especially tone deaf the week after trainers literally saved Damar Hamlin’s life and the trainer was only trying to get to an injured Lions player. I’ve seen some folks state that the trainer didn’t need to move Walker out of the way but when a 260-lb guy is in between you and your player, and you’re a medical professional, what else are you supposed to do? And Walker looked at him, then shoved him. He had a chance to walk away, and made another choice.
Folks on Twitter did what they do on Twitter, which was to ROAST Walker for his actions. He deserved that. But then the cameras showed Walker, and this just haunted me:
People apparently thought he was upset about being kicked out, but what I saw was a guy overwhelmed by the fact he couldn’t keep control of his emotions, and the impact that might (and possibly did) have on his team’s chances to win and make the playoffs. It bothered me a LOT. It’s never okay to see people truly out of control, and I worried about his mental state. (Of course, I’m no angel. Then I quickly got refocused on the game.)
But I thought about it again later too, and wondered about what had transpired. Indeed, Walker posted an apology stating this shortly after the game:
I wasn’t upset about being kicked out I just knew I messed up again and was wrong for what I did and couldn’t believe I did it again,” Walker posted on Twitter. “To the Detroit lions and to the entire training staff including the person I did that too. I’m sorry.”
I’d post to the actual tweet but Walker has deleted his Twitter account, and I don’t think it takes a ton of mental hopscotch to guess why he did so.
People need to understand that this guy is 22-years old, in the heat of the moment and he’s fueled by adrenaline here. That doesn’t excuse his behavior whatsoever, but it would be nice for the rest of us to show a bit of compassion and understanding to a kid who knows he blew it. No need to pour salt in the wounds. Of course, that’s basically what Twitter lives to do, and hence why I try to avoid that toxic site these days.
Anyway, we can all be a little nicer. And I hope Quay Walker finds some peace and learns to play under control.
As a Bears fan, my initial instinct was to go nuts and roast him, but I 100% agree. He was beating the hell out of himself and human level always trumps fandom. Hopefully he can work things out moving forward.