Patriots players praise teammate for rescuing woman after car crash
Linebacker Darius Fleming says he received 22 stitches after kicking out the car’s window.
Patriots players praised teammate Darius Fleming Wednesday at Gillette Stadium after the linebacker said he helped rescue a woman after a car crash. Fleming told The Boston Globe the incident happened Thursday night, two days before the team’s playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Fleming said he had to get 22 stitches in his right leg after he kicked out a car window to help the woman, who was involved in a three-vehicle accident on Route 1 near Gillette, according to the Globe report. He still played 10 snaps in Saturday’s 27-20 win over the Chiefs.
Walpole police said in a press release Wednesday that officers responded to a three-vehicle crash on Route 1 shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday. At the scene, a woman told an officer that an unknown male “kicked in my window, I think he was a Patriot,’’ according to police.
Police said the “good Samaritan’’ had left the scene prior to officers’ arrival. Fleming told reporters smoke was coming from the vehicle — in the release, police said to an “untrained eye’’ an air bag deployment “can appear as if [a] vehicle is enveloped in smoke.’’
At Gillette, safety Devin McCourty told reporters Fleming initially kept the story quiet.
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“We have guys around here that understand the important things in life,’’ Patriots special teams captain Matthew Slater told reporters when asked about Fleming’s heroics, saying his teammate has been “a stand up guy’’ ever since he arrived in Foxborough.
Slater described Fleming as a “tremendous young man’’ and said the whole team is proud of him.
“I wasn’t surprised at all,’’ he said of when he heard the story.
Fleming told the Globe he kicked out the window when he saw a woman couldn’t get out on her own.
“It was a little freaky, but anyone in that situation would’ve done the same thing,’’ he told the Globe. “It’s just, I was there. I’m glad I could help her.’’
Fleming told ESPN it “really wasn’t a big deal’’ to play with the stitches in his leg:
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Fleming’s high school in Chicago praised the courage of their former student in a Facebook post:
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Fleming isn’t the first Patriots player assist a driver in need. Last year, defensive tackle Vince Wilfork helped a driver in a rolled over Jeep on Route 1.
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