When Giants running back Cam Skattebo did a backflip while recovering from an injury, coach John Harbaugh joked that he should have stuck the landing. When a couple of oft-injured Packers players did backflips, coach Matt LaFleur took a harder line.
Packers running back MarShawn Lloyd and wide receiver Christian Watson, both of whom have been injury-prone, both did backflip celebrations, and LaFleur told them to knock it off.
Lloyd said after a training camp practice that LaFleur told him to stop.
“I’ve always been able to do it,” Lloyd told reporters. “Coach LaFleur doesn’t want me to do it no more. . . . He said it was cool, but he said, ‘Let’s not do that.’”
Lloyd said LaFleur told Watson to stop the backflips, too.
“He told him the same thing: Stop doing them,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd said he was trying to bring some energy to the running back group, which hadn’t been celebrating the way the receivers were.
“The running backs weren’t doing any celebrations when we were scoring,” Lloyd said. “The whole offense wasn’t liking that. The receivers came into the running back room, and said you guys need to start celebrating more. So that was the first thing that came to my mind. I can’t dance. I don’t know how to do the dance they’re doing. But I know how to do a backflip.”
In two years since the Packers selected him in the third round of the 2024 NFL draft, Lloyd has been plagued with injuries and played in only one game. Lloyd understands that LaFleur wants him to stay healthy, and accepts that the no backflips rule is a part of that.
“I’ve been doing them for a long time, but it’s fine,” Lloyd said. “If he said it’s over, it’s over.”
