“Don’t want to rush hamstring injury”: Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson addresses media before TNF matchup against Miami Dolphins

The Baltimore Ravens are enduring one of their worst seasons in franchise history. Their star quarterback Lamar Jackson, who had consistently expressed Super Bowl aspirations, suffered a hamstring injury early on in the season. With the Ravens hungry for a win and sitting in third place in the AFC North, both the team and the signal-caller are keen for his healthy return. After missing three games, Jackson is expected to make his thrilling comeback in the Thursday Night Football matchup against the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on October 30. Commenting on the injury, the four-time Pro Bowler stated, “You don’t want to rush a hamstring injury.” Baltimore-based sports reporter and radio personality Jerry Coleman posted a video interview where Lamar Jackson shared that he didn’t want to end his season or career because of a hamstring injury. He did not want to rush his recovery process. “You don’t want to rush a hamstring injury back and make it worse, and then now you’re out for the whole season, you know? This was my first time having it, and I thought I was able to move sometimes, and it’d still feel like a little tug in parts early on when I was rehabbing and stuff like that. I didn’t want to end my season or end my career on a hamstring injury,” Jackson said. The two-time NFL MVP also expressed his excitement to return to the gridiron, “I'm extremely excited. I can't wait to touch the grass with my guys, man. It's been a while.”While addressing the media, Jackson revealed that he ordered the Baltimore Ravens' locker room be without video game consoles, ping-pong tables, basketball hoops, corn-hole boards, among others: "I know Kenico(Hines), our head equipment guy, I told him to take all the games and Ping-Pong...turn the TVs off. If we could have taken the TVs out, they'd have been out too. I appreciate Mr. Steve (Bisciotti) for putting that in for us, but we had to focus. I don't want to say people don't take their jobs seriously, don't get me wrong, but I didn't feel like it was the time for that. We've got a lot of work to do." A week back, the coaches resorted to removing recreational items that could be contributing to, as Michael David Smith of NBC Sports put it, "having too much fun at the expense of winning football games." Ryan Canfield of FOX News reported that it was initially head coach John Harbaugh's decision to remove the games. A hamstring injury is a muscle strain affecting the hamstring muscles at the back of your thigh and is one of the most common sports injuries. These muscles are vital for most leg movements, absorbing significant force during activities like running, jumping, and squatting. Anything that can put too much pressure on the hamstring muscles may cause an injury—when they are overstretched or undergo sudden explosive movements such as sprinting. A hamstring injury is critical for an NFL quarterback because the muscles can hinder the explosive lower-body movements required for pocket passing and scrambling, and it can also impair throwing ability, which requires pushing off the back leg to transfer weight forward.Also Read: Baltimore Ravens coaches remove recreational items like video game consoles from the locker room