Dwayne Harris no stranger to playing hurt, or returning to a game after being carted off field
Dwayne Harris #17 of the New York Giants catches a touchdown pass during the fourth quarter of a game against the New Orleans Saints at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Nov. 1, 2015 in New Orleans. Credit: Getty Images / Sean Gardner
It takes a lot to remove Dwayne Harris from a game. Not even a cart can do it.
Giants fans learned that on Sunday when the wide receiver and special-teams ace was carted off to the locker room late in the first half of the contest against the Saints. The team announced he had ankle and knee injuries, and it seemed as if his day was over.
Then he came back and caught two touchdown passes in the frantic fourth quarter of the high-scoring game. This week he's not even listed on the team's injury report.
"I just play hurt," Harris said on Wednesday. "I've always done it."
In fact, he's done the carted-off-and-return-to-the-game act before. In New Orleans, yet.
In 2013, he was carted to the locker room for evaluation of a neck injury after a big hit along the sideline during a punt return for the Cowboys. Soon after, though, he was back on the field.
"That's the way it goes sometimes," he said.
Earlier this year, Harris left a game with a toe injury but did not miss any time. He also was dealing with a rib injury that limited his opportunities as a kickoff returner, but that never showed up on the injury report either.
"He's a tough guy now,'' Tom Coughlin said. "If at all possible, he's going to go under any circumstances . . . He is a tough guy and that's a good example.''
The Giants tease Harris about his toughness.
"He was just playing possum," fellow receiver Rueben Randle said of Harris getting carted off. "We mess with him about it. That's the type of player he is and the type of players we have on this team. He's not going to let anything stop him."
The Sunday injury occurred when his ankle was stepped on and his knee was hyperextended. Harris returned to the game and then, in the third quarter, was rolled up from behind while blocking on a screen pass to Rashad Jennings. He practically had to crawl off the field after that.
"It was a rough day for me," he said. "A rough day."
It can be a helpless feeling to be carted off the field while the rest of the team remains behind to continue playing. In this case, Harris took the ride from the Giants' sideline.
"You don't really know how bad the injury is until you get the docs to look at it," he said of his two rides to the locker room during games at the Superdome. "Then you go from there."
In Harris' case, you go back to the game from there. And back to practice this week without even a mention of the incident on the injury report.
"I feel all right," he said. "It's just one of those things you take care of, put some ice on it and keep going."
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
