The Guy Named Harrison: Book Two

71

October 17th, 2018.

Did Not Practice
• C Ryan Kalil (neck)
• DT Kawann Short (rest)
• MLB Luke Kuechly (concussion)
• MLB Harrison Ford (back)
• FB Alex Armah (hand)
• TE Chris Manhertz (bicep)

Limited In Practice
• TE Greg Olsen (foot)
• SS Kurt Coleman (knee)
• QB Garret Gilbert (ankle)

Misc
• MLB Luke Kuechly placed on injured reserve (IR)

The latest Panthers injury report was up on Twitter. And it came with a few surprises. Luke was moved to the IR list to make room for the Panthers newest linebacker Andrew Gachkar. With Luke out for another three to four games, and Harrison already listed questionable for this weekends game against the Buccaneers, the team had to add the extra depth at the linebacker position.

Carrie turned off her phone and stuck it in her back pocket as she made her way over to the practice field. Immediately after posting the injury report to the Panthers Twitter account, questions came pouring in about Harrison.

She instructed her staff to not release anything on Harrison's condition. Carrie was going to take care of that herself. She and Harrison didn't want the publicity to go along with the events of last night. Nobody needed to know how exactly he got hurt. They asked the newspaper to cover them as anonymous to keep that kind of publicity away from Harrison as he was preparing for a game.

Carrie didn't know how to address the issue to the roomful of reporters that would be waiting for her after practice. She had to keep the story as true and as bland as possible.

Reaching the practice field, she immediately spotted Harrison standing by Luke and Kawann on the sidelines.

They were talking about what happened last night and Carrie immediately started thinking about handling the media. There wasn't anything seriously wrong with his back. A MRI and X-ray revealed that earlier. His back injury was only soreness and a slight bruise on his spine. She could say he got hurt while doing physical activity. He was punching that guy when the other hit him in the back. That wasn't stretching the truth too far...

➄➈

Harrison hated having to watch practice from the sidelines. It was a horrible feeling to him not to be out there practicing with his teammates. Watching practice was so boring. He wanted to be doing something.

The supposed 'light' rain this morning turned into a downpour as soon as Carrie made her way onto the field. She grabbed her Panthers raincoat from the fence behind him and joined the three guys to watch practice.

He turned his hat around and zipped up his raincoat. With the rain blowing in, it also got a lot colder. Now Harrison was happy to have his heated back brace on right now. With sweatpants and a coat on, he was staying warm.

➄➈

Coach Rivera called practice not to long after. Harrison and Carrie jogged through the rain back to Bank of America Stadium. "Do you know what you're going to say?"

She nodded and explained to him what she had planned.

"That sounds good. Thank you Carrie."