Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter taps on a wooden bench outside the juice bar at TCO Performance Center and asks for protection. Through the superstitious knocks, he describes the hopelessness of his 25-year-old hands being taken off the wheel of a superstar NFL career, wishing it to never happen again.
"It's crazy, unexpected," Hunter said in an interview with the Star Tribune. "Whatever happened to me, could've happened to anyone."
Hunter left the practice field on Aug. 14, 2020 riding high. He'd finished the non-padded session, taking reps without limitation and minimal contact. But somewhere in that contact with a teammate, a moment that required film study of practice to identify, Hunter suffered the cervical herniated disc that would end his season.