Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell opens up about 'catastrophic' Lewis Cine injury
Seeing rookie safety Lewis Cine in pain immediately after he snapped his leg on a punt return play was "one of the harder" moments of Kevin O'Connell's career.
"Going out there to be with Lew on the field just immediately after the injury was quite honestly one of the harder things I've done since I became a head coach and even going back further than that," O'Connell said on "X's and O's," a weekly show that airs on KFAN radio and the Vikings website.
O'Connell described it as a "catastrophic" injury and a "serious situation."
"Any time there is a fracture of that magnitude that does indeed break the skin, there's whole levels of importance to that immediate care right after," he said.
Cine's lower left leg snapped when he was racing downfield as part of the Vikings' punt return unit. Medical staff rushed onto the field and put his leg in an air cast before he was taken to a hospital in London for emergency care.
"What I wanted to do is be there for Lew and let him know that I was out there with him. And that's not going to stop until he's back out on the field making plays for us," O'Connell said. "But what I did notice is just our entire team, practice squad, every single guy on our roster, coming out to want to at least let Lew know the same thing. I thought that was a really special moment."
Special teams coordinator Matt Daniels can relate to Cine. Daniels revealed Thursday that he suffered "that same exact injury" – a compound leg fracture – when he was playing for the St. Louis Rams in 2012.
"I just shared my experience with him," Daniels said. "I understand what he's going through, that trauma."
"You have to find a way to not get down and ask yourself, 'Why me? Why me?' " Daniels explained. "I think that's where I found myself trying to figure out why this was happening to me after a college career where I was pretty clean, no injuries. Then I come into this league, and it's back-to-back years I end up having season-ending injuries."
A timetable for Cine's return is unknown, though his rookie season is over.
He underwent surgery Tuesday and remains in London until he's able to fly back to Minneapolis and continue the recovery and rehabilitation process at Vikings headquarters in Eagan.
"When the time's right, I cannot wait to get him back here in this building with us and ultimately wrap our arms around him and let him know that everything's going to be OK," said O'Connell. "We're going to be with him on every step of the way on this journey back."
Cine was drafted 32nd overall by the Vikings after he starred at Georgia, where he was named the defensive MVP of the national championship game.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.