Four weeks after Gil Haskell was seriously injured in Dallas, the Green Bay Packers assistant coach has little memory of the sideline collision that threatened his career as a football coach, if not his life.
"I've watched the game about 10 times looking to see what happened to me," Haskell said Sunday at the National Football League's annual scouting combine.During a 45-minute interview Sunday morning, the 52-year-old wide receivers coach exhibited no signs of having suffered a fractured skull and bruised brain in a frightening collision with the Packers' Robert Brooks in the Green Bay-Dallas game for the National Football Conference championship Jan. 14.
"I saw Robert go by me," he recalled, "and I said, `OK, we're not going to make the first down. What's our next play?'
"I looked at my play sheet and - BOOM! - they're there, driving him into me. That's all I remember."
Even now, Haskell finds it difficult to fathom just how grave his condition was in the 24 to 36 hours after the mishap.
"I know it was serious because they tell me it was serious," Haskell said. "But it wasn't like I was driving a car and was in an accident or saw it coming. I got hit and I didn't see it and I really didn't feel it."
In fact, Haskell has been told that his first instinct upon coming to in the ambulance transporting him to Baylor University Medical Center was helping the team in the second half of what became the Cowboys' 38-27 victory over the Packers.
"I said, `I'm not hurt. I want to get back on the field,"' Haskell said. "They said, `No, you're not, you're hurt."'
That Haskell has returned to good health and been able to return to work with the Packers so quickly after the incident is one of the more heartwarming stories of the NFL season. He was his typical gregarious, animated self during the interview, answering questions comfortably and hailing pals from the coaching and scouting ranks as they walked past.
Arriving in Indianapolis late Saturday afternoon, he observed the workouts of the draft-eligible wide receivers Sunday morning and then flew back that afternoon.
"I feel very good," Haskell said. "I don't feel any different than if I didn't get hit."