Former NFL player Gary Baxter has a message for Vikings rookie wide receiver Greg Childs: I know how you’re feeling.
Childs is done for the season (at least) after tearing the patellar tendons in both knees on Saturday, and Baxter, a former Browns cornerback who tore both patellar tendons in 2006, would like to offer Childs some encouragement. Although Baxter never played in a game again after suffering the injury, he did recover well enough that he was able to spend some time in the Browns’ training camp a year after the injury.
“It’s not something that can’t be overcome,” Baxter told the Pioneer Press. “I was told I’d never walk again, and I saw the field again. I was determined to prove [doctors] wrong on multiple levels. He’s going to have to really bust it in rehab. And he’s going to have to have nothing but positivity around him, a positive spirit and the right attitude. It sounds like he’s a strong guy and wants to do those things.”
When he suffered the double patellar tear, Childs joined an unfortunate fraternity that includes not only Baxter but also former Bears receiver Wendell Davis, who tore both patellar tendons in an ugly injury on the Astroturf at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia in 1993. Baxter said Davis encouraged him, and he’d like to pay it forward by encouraging Childs.
“Wendell Davis visited me in the hospital, and I’m going to do the same for Greg,” Baxter said. “I want to offer him encouragement, because there aren’t too many people who understand what he’s going through.”
Baxter said Childs is in for “extreme, extreme, extreme pain,” but that with hard work in rehab, he can play again. That would be a major accomplishment for Childs, and Baxter hopes he can help.
