The Chargers were up 14-6 in the first had of Sunday night’s game against the Patriots when a drive stalled in their territory and they called on Mike Scifres to punt the ball away.
Patriots running back Brandon Bolden beat his blocker, though, and blocked the punt while also sending Scifres spinning into the air and then back down hard on his left shoulder. Scifres had to be carted off the field with his arm in a sling and Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the team fears he broke his clavicle on the play.
The play led to a Rob Gronkowski touchdown that sent the Patriots on their way to the 23-14 victory, which would usually make it a source of great excitement for Bolden. After the game, though, he said that Scifres’s injury made it hard to feel great about the way things played out.
“It wasn’t an exciting moment for me anymore,” Bolden said, via the Boston Herald. “My first blocked NFL punt, I was very excited at first, and when I looked back and saw when they had to bring the cart on the field, it was a totally different story. All that excitement went out the window. I had to go out there and check on him and tell him it was nothing intentional. I was not trying to hurt him.”
Kicker Nick Novak punted for the rest of the night, there will be a new punter on board for next week’s game if Scifres did break his clavicle.
