GREEN BAY — Everyone was excited for Bryan Bulaga Friday – his coaches, his quarterback, his teammates, his fellow offensive linemen. That the Green Bay Packers veteran right tackle had passed his physical and been cleared for practice – nine months after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee – was cause for celebration.
But no one was more pumped for Bulaga than Packers athletic trainer Andrew DePietropaolo.
Not only has DePietropaolo been Bulaga’s physical therapist throughout his rehabilitation, helping him hit all the requisite mileposts on his journey back onto the field, but he’s also been absorbing the blocks that Bulaga would have preferred to have been delivering to 300-pound defensive linemen while spending the first week of training camp on the physically unable to perform list.