Bengals Punter Drue Chrisman Offers Some Details on His Medical Emergency and When He Hopes To Return

Cincinnati Bengals punter Drue Chrisman was back at Paycor Stadium for the first time since he was wheeled out of the building on a stretcher and rushed to a hospital Wednesday.

Cincinnati Bengals Punter Drue Chrisman Speaks on Medical Emergency

Chrisman didn’t want to share the details of the medical emergency that created the scare, but he said it was an escalation of something he has been dealing with since he was 10 years old. He was doing his warmup before his lift in the team weight room when he collapsed.

“It was a little bit of a scare, but they ruled out a lot of the really bad things, so now we’re just hopefully moving on and won’t have to worry about it anymore,” Chrisman said.

“It was very sudden. I was told I wasn’t out for long before coming to. I’m glad it happened here instead of riding on Vine Street or something like that. Luckily we have a great training staff, and the hospital is so close, so I was able to get the care that I needed, and everything turned out all right.”

Chrisman tweeted a picture of himself in his hospital bed with a scab on his head, which he said was the result of his fall after losing consciousness.

Thank you to everyone who has reached out. I appreciate your thoughts and prayers. Everything looking to be okay and hopefully back soon🙌🏼 pic.twitter.com/NmpLUJVl9b

— Drue Chrisman (@DChrisman91) July 28, 2023

“That was kind of a battle with me and the turf in (weight room), and turf won that one,” he said. “That was scary. I’ve never experienced that before.”

Chrisman, who was present at practice Monday but did not participate, said he doesn’t have an exact timeline for being able to punt in practice, but he’s hopeful it can be by the end of the week.

Rookie sixth-round pick Brad Robbins has been handling all of the punting for the first week of practice instead of alternating with Chrisman in what was anticipated to be an open competition for the job.

“Not ideal timing, that’s for sure,” Chrisman said. “Injuries or any kind of ailment in any sort of way certainly isn’t ideal. But hopefully, I’ll be back to it by the end of the week soon and move past this and get back to it.”

Chrisman struggled with hang time and directional punting after replacing Kevin Huber — the franchise’s career leader in games played — 11 games into last season. Robbins led the NCAA in hang time in his last two seasons at Michigan.

“Get 100 percent and then come back and see where the cards lie at that point,” Chrisman said of his thought process with the competition hanging in the balance. “I think that’s still the focus. Obviously, once I can finally put on the cleats and start kicking the ball again, I think that’ll come more to the front of my mind. But at the moment, it’s getting back to 100 percent.

“But as far as spirits, it feels a lot better being out in the field than in a hospital room,” he added. “So, can’t complain about the view I had today.”