Gus Bradley went to the hospital with Dante Fowler for his procedures

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Thirty minutes into his first practice as a pro football player Friday afternoon, Jacksonville pass-rusher Dante Fowler tried to speed-rush right tackle Watts Dantzler. As Fowler juked to the outside, Dantzler nudged him—it was little more than a soft block, but caught Fowler a little off-balance—and Fowler went down in a heap.

The show must go on. While Fowler writhed on the ground, clutching his left knee for a few moments, the drill was moved 20 yards upfield. The fans on hand to see the first practice of their defensive savior craned their necks to see Fowler. They all just knew it didn’t look good. And it wasn’t. Two hours later, in an MRI tube at a nearby hospital, the damage to the knee of Fowler—who’d never had a significant injury of any sort in his football career—was confirmed. Torn ACL. Out for the season.

On Saturday, I asked Jacksonville coach Gus Bradley how he has handled his team, his star rookie and himself over the previous 24 hours. Bradley’s always been an optimistic sort and now has to be the all-is-well conscience of his team and his fan base. I thought he’d be bummed. Short with me, clipped, snippy. He was none of that.

The Bradley monologue:

“I wasn’t watching the play when it happened, but I was right there. Dante went down, and he stayed down. We moved up the drill, away from Dante. Then I went over to him, and he was like, ‘I’ll be fine, Gus, I’ll be fine. I think I got my foot caught.’ Then he went to the trainers room. We came in after practice. He was going to the hospital to get an MRI. So I went over to the hospital, maybe 10 minutes away. I just figured, He’s 20 years old, he just got here, he doesn’t know anyone, this is where I should be.

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“We were at the hospital and Dante basically said, ‘Whatever we find out, don’t worry about me, I’m good. I’ll come back stronger.’ ”

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