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Packers LB Quay Walker opens up about how he plans to avoid ejections in sophomore season

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•07/31/23
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SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 12: Quay Walker #7 of the Green Bay Packers looks on from the sideline during the fourth quarter of an NFL preseason football game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium on August 12, 2022 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

Quay Walker’s final game of the 2022-23 NFL season left a pretty rough impression of the Packers rookie. Walker made headlines in all the wrong ways in Green Bay’s last regular season game against the Detroit Lions when he shoved a Lions trainer and was subsequently ejected. That wasn’t the only time Walker’s game ended on the referee’s terms in year one, either. Back in October, Walker shoved a backup Bills tight end and was thrown out of that game as well. And those Bills fans remembered his name when he interfered with the Lions trainer less than a week after the Damar Hamlin incident.

Some asked… how could Quay Walker not only get ejected a second time, but do so by interfering with a trainer just days after the extremely serious ordeal that occurred with Hamlin in Cincinnati? Obviously, it was a terrible decision and Walker has admitted it weighed on him the whole offseason.

“I ain’t going to lie to you, it was hard to give myself grace,” Walker said at his locker Saturday to PackersNews.com. “This whole time this offseason, I thought about it every day.”

Walker continued, explaining that Packers psychologist Chris Carr has helped him overcome the mistakes mentally. “I want to say when I got back here for OTAs, talking with Dr. Carr, it was just one day I talked to him, I moved past it. It took me a long time. I’d be lying if I said every (day this offseason), I didn’t think about it. Every day, I thought about it.”

Eventually, though, Quay Walker was able to forgive himself for those screw-ups and is now focused on trying to prevent similar outbursts this coming season: “I just had to give myself grace, because it was beating me up. It messed myself up mentally, to be honest with you. I wasn’t in the right mindset.”

He knows he’ll get irked during the games, but it’s about keeping a level head in those moments that get his blood going.

“I’ve just got to get back to the huddle. They’re going to try to push me in the back after the play, do things like that. But I’ve just got to tone that out. Because I know I’m already expecting it. I’ve just got to get back to the huddle. Just think about how I felt when I did get ejected, how bad I felt. Every time I think about that, that pretty much just sets me straight.”

Green Bay is hoping for a more mature Quay Walker, and by the sound of it, he’s really grown up in that department after making some disappointing missteps a year ago.