Both sides in the Los Angeles Chargers-Dallas Cowboys preseason finale on Saturday in Texas went through quite an ordeal to wrap up their respective preseasons.
On Monday, a Cowboys’ player’s hotel room caught fire out at training camp in Oxnard, CA. On Friday evening around 7:30 p.m. CT, several Chargers players and personnel, including quarterback Justin Herbert, were trapped in an elevator at the team’s hotel, the Westin in downtown Dallas, per WFAA. Los Angeles released a statement announcing everyone trapped in the elevator was successfully rescued, one-by-one, by the Dallas Fire-Rescue.
“At approximately 7:30 p.m. CT Friday evening, several players and members of the Chargers traveling party were stranded in an inoperable elevator at the team hotel,” the Chargers said in a statement. “Dallas Fire-Rescue responded to the incident and subsequently assisted everyone from the elevator, one-by-one, through its ceiling panel and into an adjacent elevator. The Los Angeles Chargers thank Dallas Fire-Rescue for their quick response, professionalism and substantial efforts in ensuring everyone’s safety.”
Head coach John Harbaugh, who was not in the elevator when it was stuck, commented on the incident and how it could’ve had a much worse ending. He noted that one player in particular stepped up as a leader, keeping the rest of those stuck calm in a stressful situation.
“We dodged a bullet,” Harbaugh said, via a team transcript. “I usually think of dodging a bullet of dodging an injury in football. You’ve got to get good at that. You’ve got to get good at making yourself harder to break. That’s a shared experience that brought them closer together. I just missed it, being on that elevator. It was like, ‘Wish I could have been there with those guys.’ But Justin Herbert was.”
Harbaugh said many were sweating so much they took off their shirts, but Herbert was visibly more relaxed.
“The remarkable things that came out of it was, to a guy, young rookie players, ‘Justin Herbert’s a leader. He was a rock. Kept everybody calm,'” Harbaugh said. “[Hall of Famer Dan Fouts’ wife] Jeri Fouts told me the same thing, pulled me aside after they got out, just how great Justin was. And everybody kept their poise.”
Harbaugh continued, saying, “You get in those situations, and it’s a test of wills. I was proud of each of the guys and the two women that were on that elevator. That’s a win. You feel good about yourself. You were challenged. It was a test of will, and you pull it down, or pull it in. It was a camaraderie amongst that group that is even stronger than it was before.”
The head coach then thanked the rescue team, telling them to take a “deep, long bow” and calling them “incredible.”
The Chargers and Cowboys are set to kickoff their preseason finale in Arlington, Texas at AT&T Stadium at 3 p.m. C.T. on Saturday.
