A video of Jets Safety Jamal Adams laying a brutal hit on an unsuspecting Patriots mascot during a Pro Bowl practice autograph session made the rounds on social media yesterday. It was supposed to be a funny joke, but the actual human inside the costume is still trying to figure out the punchline.
This one is for every Patriots hater out there! I got y’all! pic.twitter.com/q0WAbDfrpL
— Jamal Adams (@TheAdamsEra) January 24, 2019
Today we learned that the form tackle resulted in a trip to the hospital for the mascot with undisclosed injuries. Adams says he didn’t mean to injure the guy, but the video shows the tackle probably would have put an NFL QB in the concussion protocol and drawn a 15-yard penalty.
Per Adams:
“[The mascot] was running around and everybody was booing him, so I said, ‘You know what? Let me go tackle him.’ I didn’t hit him that hard, man. All jokes aside, I didn’t hit him that hard. I don’t know what’s really going on, but they did tell me he’s in the hospital.
My intention was never to hurt him. it was all about just a joke, but I definitely want to check on him and make sure everything is good. At the end of the day, we were out here just having fun and it wasn’t nothing intentionally to try to hurt the guy.”
It’s probably a good time to remind everyone that mascots aren’t indestructible cartoon characters and there’s a real person inside making the magic happen.