Oakland Raiders wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey is in stable condition, remains in hospital – NFL News
Oakland Raiders wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey was taken to hospital after getting a neck injury in Week 3 game against Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, September 23, 2012. He is reported to be in stable condition now.
Heyward-Bey got the injury after a fierce helmet-to-helmet hit from Steelers safety Ryan Mundy during the final quarter of the game.
The wide receiver was trying to catch a pass in the end zone thrown by quarterback Carson Palmer. He went into the ground as he was knocked unconscious.
Raiders’ medical staff rushed to the field to take care of Heyward-Bey. He remained on the ground for the next 10 minutes as players from both teams kneeled down to pray for their fellow professional.
Heyward-Bey was then carted off the field and was taken to the hospital where he was analysed. While being carted off the field, he put his hand up as crowd roared in a reaction.
According to different media reports, the doctors believe that Heyward-Bey does not have a concussion.
The most surprising aspect of the incident was that no flag was thrown on the field by the replacement officials despite the fact that Mundy clearly hit Heyward-Bey’s head. Talking about the incident with the Associated Press, Mundy said:
"It's tough. He has a job just like I have a job. Anytime that he's not able to perform his job because of injury, that's tough as a player. We don't play like that. We don't try to injury people or anything like that. We understand this is people's livelihood.
We take that serious."
After the injury to Heyward-Bey, Raiders went on to make a sparkling comeback to score 13 points and win the game 34-31. During the postgame talk, Raiders safety Michael Huff said:
"Any time they take one of your brothers out, you have to retaliate and get them back, obviously not in an illegal way or anything like that. We wanted to go out and get the win for him because he couldn't finish it."
Heyward-Bey was drafted by Raiders as a seventh overall pick in the 2009 draft. He played 15 games last season and scored four touchdowns while covering 975 yards.
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