New England Patriots linebacker Darius Fleming confirmed Wednesday that he rescued a woman from a burning car last week and played with 22 stitches in his leg in Saturday’s divisional playoff win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
Fleming said he was injured when he kicked in a window to pull the woman out of the smoking car about a mile away from Gillette Stadium two days before the game.
Fleming’s agent also confirmed the story after the fourth-year player’s alma mater, St. Rita High School in Chicago, posted about the incident on Facebook.
The 26-year-old Fleming drew a large media crowd in the locker room Wednesday.
Fleming described the incident occurring when a semi-truck truck made an unexpected right turn on Route 1 while he was driving away from Gillette Stadium, which he said led to three cars colliding in front of his vehicle.
Law enforcement officials from the Foxborough (Mass.) Police Department, the Wrentham (Mass.) Police Department, the Norfolk (Mass.) Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police told ESPN on Wednesday that they have no record of any such incident last Thursday on Route 1.
“I was about to go around it, but I noticed the lady in front of me, she kind of was jumping around the car, passenger seat, back seat, and I noticed smoke building up inside the car,” Fleming told reporters Wednesday. “I tried to open the doors and it wouldn’t work. So then I was just like, ‘I have to get her out of here. I don’t know if this lady can breathe or what.’
“I started banging on the window. It wouldn’t break. So then I started to kick in the window and eventually it broke.”
Fleming said it took three kicks of the window before it eventually gave way and he pulled the woman out of the car to safety.
“Then I noticed my leg was bleeding pretty bad, so I figured I should get out of there,” Fleming said. “I came back (to the team facility), got it bandaged up, and then went to the hospital.”
Fleming said doctors had to remove a fragment of glass from his leg.
Fleming’s primary contributions in Saturday’s 27-20 win came on special teams, where he played 16 snaps between the punt coverage, kickoff coverage, kickoff return and punt return units, recording one tackle. He also filled in for 10 defensive snaps late in the game when linebackers Jamie Collins (back) and Jerod Mayo (shoulder) left with injuries, adding a tackle on defense.
“I didn’t think about it too much,” Fleming said. “You’ve got stitches on your leg, so it’s in the back of your mind, but I was just excited to be able to play. Because the first thing that came into my mind was ‘Damn, my leg is pretty cut up today,’ and I wasn’t sure how it would affect me and how it would affect my game. But I was fine.”
New England defensive captain Devin McCourty said the Patriots cheered Fleming for his actions.
“We got the hero’s speech. He gave us his account of what happened and a lot of cheers went out,” McCourty said.