GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers receiver Christian Watson had just made a 53-yard catch to put his team in position to take the lead on Thursday night against the Carolina Panthers.

There was one problem as he laid on the ground. He couldn’t breathe. Watson laid motionless on the grass at Lambeau Field, not knowing what had happened to him.

“I think I just came down on the ball or my elbow or something,” Watson said. “I couldn’t breathe on the field. I got the wind knocked out of me. I got back to the sideline and I was kind of spitting up some blood or something like that.”

Watson revealed that he had a broken rib that presumably was going to knock him out of the rest of the game. Watson was taken to a hospital for precautionary reasons, despite his objections.

“So, the doctor said I had to go get a CT. I was trying to beg them to not make me do that, but it is what it is,” Watson said. “Thankfully, I was able to get the CT, everything looked good. I got a rib, that’s all. The major stuff was all good. No internal bleeding or anything like that, so I was able to get back out there. That was an experience, for sure.”

Football is a game in which violence is glorified. Players run into each other for a living. Playing with pain is an expectation.

That’s especially true in the Watson family, where all three men have played at the professional level. Watson grew up with an older brother and father who would chide him into getting up as soon as he was laying on the field. That was a rule in the Watson household. Playing through pain once you’re standing? That’s the expectation, as well.

“We would always kind of chirp at each other if you know anyone was laying on the ground too long,” Watson said. “We just always had the mentality to get up, anyway. So, yeah, if you can get up, you have to get up.”

With Watson headed to the hospital, the assumption was that he would miss the rest of the game, considering the situation was similar to the one that he faced last year in Denver. Ultimately, Watson injured his shoulder and did not miss any time last year.

One hour after being unable to breathe, Watson returned to Lambeau Field in a scene that was straight out of WWE. The only thing missing was entry music for The Undertaker with the way Watson re-entered the game.

“Yeah, it was pretty remarkable,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “He was coughing up blood, and so they took him for precautionary reasons and had to check him out. Obviously, he cleared that, and the grit to go back in the game, he had a heck of a night. I can’t imagine what he would have had (statistically) had he not missed so much time.”

Watson’s night was off to an excellent start when he left the game. In about 21 minutes, he had eclipsed 100 receiving yards and was asserting himself as the best player on the field, his fumble notwithstanding.

When he returned to the stadium, the Packers were leading 27-10. Why did he return to the field?

Simply put, that’s the expectation.

“Honestly, I feel like before I even left, I wanted to get back out there,” he said. “This means everything to me, to be out there on the football field. Like I said, I’ve had injuries that I was not able to go back out on the field after for, and I missed a significant amount of time with injuries.

“So, any chance I get to go out there on the football field, I’m going to be out there on the football field. everyone’s hurting somewhere. Everybody is feeling something. Just got to fight through it and keep on going.”

Watson finished the night with eight catches for 113 yards. His final catch was a big third-and-2 conversion in the fourth quarter.

Watson had rotten injury luck earlier in his career with soft-tissue injuries along with the ACL injury he suffered in the season finale of 2024. The question with Watson has never been ability, but whether his body would allow him to showcase his obvious talent.

Through eight games, Watson is well on pace to shatter his career highs in receptions, yards and touchdowns. According to the team, he is the first Packers player with 40-plus catches, 700-plus receiving yards, six-plus receiving touchdown and an average of at least 16.5 yards per catch in the first eight games since Jordy Nelson in 2013.

He is Green Bay’s best receiver on the field, but also sets the standard off of it.

His football character is sky high. His teammates rave about him. He’s blossomed into a leader of his position group.

When the game ended, his teammates were both in awe, but not surprised that Watson returned to the lineup in order to play through pain.

“I think it’s incredible. I think it shows resiliency, I think it shows toughness and I think it just shows the love that he has for this team,” safety Xavier McKinney said. “Sometimes, you might see that happen and he had his 100 yards and he could’ve just sat it.

“But the fact that he wasn’t satisfied and the fact that he felt like and he knew that we still needed him out there and he still said, OK, I love this team and I want to be able to go out here for this team and do that, that gains our respect. We respect him for that and sh**, we love him for that, we appreciate him for that.”

What about his quarterback? What did Jordan Love think about his top receiver returning to the lineup?

“That just speaks and is a testament to who he is and what type of player he is,” Love said after the game. “But not only that, what kind of will he has because, man, that’s crazy. A lot of people would never, especially a receiver, but for him to come in and keep playing and then still make plays, I mean that’s huge.”

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