New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara was doing his best to evade defenders last Sunday and help his team claw back from a huge deficit against the Detroit Lions. Unfortunately, when Kamara stumbled out of bounds, he wrecked one of the Saints’ chain gang sideline workers and wound up breaking the poor man’s leg.
Here’s the previous article about Kamara’s sideline collision, with the grisly footage below that, of course, comes with a warning that it’s rather graphic to behold and not for the situationally squeamish:
As was reported by NOLA.com’s Jeff Duncan, the sideline worker, Nick Piazza, received a signed jersey and ball from Kamara as a gesture of goodwill.
Not quite the “pay his medical bills” initiative that I advocated for initially, but a classy move in any event. Plus, who knows? Maybe the Saints are already footing the medical costs.
From Duncan’s story, it sounds like Piazza is grateful for Kamara’s kindness:
“I was embarrassed at first…I’m not used to being in the spotlight. But after a while, I realized, ‘Ain’t no hiding it now.’ It is what it is. […] I really appreciate the messages, care packages and medical treatment…And if you see Alvin, please tell him thanks. He signed a football and jersey for me. Very nice.”
…But don’t let that stop people on Twitter. Once the news broke and an aggregator picked up Duncan’s story to the tune of a bazillion impressions because that’s the way the world works, we got quite the collection of outsiders chiming in on Kamara’s gift.
TLDR: It was apparently not good enough.
DAMN… Tough crowd. I guess there’s probably some lingering animosity toward Kamara from haters who are upset that he isn’t the fantasy football stud he once was, or maybe it stems from Kamara’s suspension due to an altercation from February 2022 in Las Vegas. OR it’s just a genuine, humanitarian/Samaritan concern for Piazza’s well-being. Probably a combination of all those elements if I’m being honest, with a lot less emphasis on the latter. Because that’s how these keyboard warriors tend to operate…
At least it seems like Piazza is in as good of spirits as he can be, with his surgery slated for Friday. Best wishes to him for a long recovery, and you have to empathize with him for being thrust into the spotlight all of a sudden when he had no desire to be the center of attention. Hopefully we get some follow-up news in the coming months about how well he’s doing.
As for Kamara, well…I guess just pay it forward and keep doing your best to help the Saints win the atrocious NFC South division. What else can ya do?
