NFL preseason game ends early after serious injury to Detroit Lions’ Morice Norris

ATLANTA — Detroit Lions safety Morice Norris was in stable condition after he was attended to for about 20 minutes and taken off the field in an ambulance Friday night in Atlanta, with the preseason game ending early.

“Morice Norris is in stable condition and has feeling and movement in all his extremities,” the Lions said in a statement. “He will remain at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta overnight for observation. We would like to thank the Atlanta Falcons organization, the EMS team at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the doctors and staff at Grady for their support.”

Norris was hurt with 14:50 to go trying to tackle running back Nathan Carter. When play resumed, Falcons quarterback Emory Jones took a snap and held the ball as players from both teams stood at the line of scrimmage as the clock continued to run.

Finally, with 6:31 left, an official announced the game had been suspended “per New York” with Detroit up 17-10.

Lions coach Dan Campbell asked for prayers for the 24-year-old Norris.

“We’re just praying for Mo and ask that everybody prays for him,” Campbell said.

Campbell said Norris had his mother with him at the hospital.

Norris, the former Fresno State player listed as Detroit’s second-team safety, hit Carter with his facemask facing the running back’s midsection, and the defender’s head snapped back after making the hit.

Lions quarterback Kyle Allen said it was immediately obvious the medical personnel saw this as a serious injury.

“Usually you see a couple trainers out there,” Allen said. “It’s never good when they bring out the stretchers. We just started praying for him and hoping for the best. When it’s taking that long, with that many people and that many trainers around him, you’re just hoping for the best.”

Added Allen: “It’s just awful. … You sign up for football and you understand the risk, you understand the injury risk. You never think something like that is going to happen.

“At the end of the day we’re all out here as football players. We may be on 32 different teams but we’ve all played football our whole lives and had our own injuries and been through it.”

Campbell and Falcons coach Raheem Morris made the decision to not finish the game.

“Raheem Morris is a class act,” Campbell said. “He’s the ultimate class act. We agreed it just didn’t feel right to finish that game.”

Morris said it was “common courtesy” for the coaches to decide to not finish the game.

“It was tough to watch,” Morris said. “It was tough for the other team to see getting a teammate hurt that way. It was the right thing to do for Dan and his crew and his team and everything we had going on right there, I thought that was the right thing.

“You never like to see anybody get hurt in any type of game or any type of way. It was a tough deal for those guys, a tough deal for us, a tough deal all across the board.”

Allen said the decision to not finish the game was easy to make.

“I don’t think anyone on that sideline wanted to play,” Allen said. “We weren’t part of that decision but you could look in anyone’s eyes and see that.”

Though the decision to not finish the game seemed dramatic, there were two precedents from preseason games in consecutive weeks in August 2023.

New England’s game at Green Bay in Week 2 of the 2023 preseason was called off when Patriots cornerback Isaiah Bolden was carted off in the fourth quarter. Bolden appeared to collide with teammate Calvin Munson while attempting to make a hit on a pass completion to Malik Heath of the Packers.

Bolden was taken to a hospital and released the next day.

A week later, a game between Miami and Jacksonville was not completed after Dolphins receiver Daewood Davis was carted off in the fourth quarter. Davis was hurt when he ran a slant route and was attempting to catch a pass when he was hit by Jaguars linebacker Dequan Jackson.

Davis was released from the hospital a day later.

The two frightening injuries happened some eight months after Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on the field during a regular season game at Cincinnati in January 2023. Hamlin has enjoyed a remarkable recovery and resumed football the following season and spent last year as a Bills starter.