The Los Angeles Chargers pulled off an impressive overtime victory over the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, on Monday night. As great as the Chargers’ defense performed under defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, the most remarkable part of the win may be that quarterback Justin Herbert suited up at all, considering he had surgery on a broken left hand just a week ago.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh was in awe of his star quarterback after the game.
“Justin Herbert, he’s a superhero,” Harbaugh said after the game, according to Pro Football Talk. “He’s a competitive maniac. He was even stiff-arming guys with a broken hand — he had surgery a week ago. It felt like we were in a movie where the quarterback’s doing things, and you get to the point where you go, ‘OK, it’s getting a little unrealistic.’ That’s what it felt like to me. He refuses to lose. He’s tough as they get. He’s a superhero quarterback.”
For his part, Herbert downplayed playing through the injury.
“Just because I’m the quarterback, I get the talk about that, but those guys, they battle,” Herbert said, via the team’s website. “There’s definitely guys in that locker room that are fighting through so many different injuries and things worse than what I’m going through. It’s the least that I can do to show up and give my best.”
Harbaugh went as far as to call the win one of the happiest moments of his life.
“It’s certainly in the discussion, I’d put it in the discussion of the birth of my seven children, my marriage,” he said. “In the conversation. Just joyous. The Biblical definition of that is just overflowing with joy.”
“What a team we have,” Harbaugh said. “Just a wonderful feeling of victory. Great thrill of victory.”
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.