CINCINNATI — When Jabrill Peppers landed awkwardly at Friday’s practice, something in his leg felt funny, but the Patriots safety didn’t think much of it.
By that evening however, his hip was barking.
“I really couldn’t sleep. I was up all night,” Peppers said after a 16-10 upset of the Bengals. “Probably only got two hours of sleep on Friday.”
Things were worse on Saturday morning.
The captain said he “couldn’t really walk” when he arrived at the Gillette Stadium facility ahead of a flight to Cincinnati for the season opener. He went to see the training staff, was added to the injury report with a questionable designation, and handed a plan for quick rehab.
“I attacked the treatment,” Peppers said. “They had a good game plan for me.”
There was one thing that complicated the rehab in Cincinnati though: The team hotel didn’t have a pool. Peppers was hellbent on playing in the opener, so he and the training staff got creative. They found a Holiday Inn that had a pool — “across the street” — and dove in. The safety and a trainer were able to find some open water and do all of the exercises without any major interruption.
“There was no way I was going to miss the first game of the season,” Peppers said. “My leg would’ve had to fall off for me to miss that.”
After the pool treatment, Peppers was feeling better on Sunday morning, and passed all of the training staff’s tests for be cleared for kickoff. He was a tone-setter and recorded six tackles in New England’s stunning win over Joe Burrow and the Bengals.
