On Tuesday's episode of NFL Network's "Good Morning Football", we learned Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson would be on this week's edition of "The Squeeze", the podcast actor and Lions fan Taylor Lautner does with his wife. The clip that was released showed Hutchinson stating his goal to be back from his broken leg in time to play in the Super Bowl.
"I’m on track for my goal of returning for the Super Bowl,” Hutchinson said. “And so, I keep telling all the boys when I see them in the facility, ‘you’ve just to get there. And I promise you I’m going to be back’. And I tell people that, and my mom was like, we were talking yesterday, she's like 'but Aidan, what if you don't get back?' 'What if you can't?' And I was like, there's no other way."
For all the positive updates Hutchinson has put out there and we have seen otherwise, since a week after his injury, we know those social media posts don't show the grind he has gone through behind the scenes. That grind has been physical as much as mental, as is inherent with suffering such a significant injury.
Aidan Hutchinson further details his road to recovery
Hutchinson said he has moved to walking with just one crutch, as he continues to work toward the goal of being able to play in the Super Bowl driving the process.
Hutchinson was asked to describe the moment of his injury, if he knew immediately what the injury was, etc. He went into good detail and eventually got to, within the core premise of the Lautners' podcast, the mental battle after his injury.
"I was having this career year, it was like everything was going right. I was in this flow state the entire first part of the season. And then, it just got ripped away from me," Hutchinson said. "I remember they put the air cast on my leg to put me on the stretcher to put me on the cart and go. All I remember thinking is just, one, 'I’m not gonna be able to play in the Super Bowl,' and two, the season that I was on this Defensive Player of the Year track got ripped away from me and that’s all gone.”
Hutchinson's entire conversation with the Lautners is interesting and detailed regarding his injury and his all-around recovery process. Here's the full video: