People often throw around the term "hero" when talking about professional athletes, but it seems that Patriots linebacker Darius Fleming truly deserves that label.
Today it was revealed that he took the field on Saturday with 22 stitches in his leg, an injury he sustained two days earlier, after rescuing a woman from a burning car.
Last Thursday, as he was driving home from practice, Darius witnessed a three-car accident and quickly realized that one of the drivers was trapped in her car, he said.
"She was attempting to kick the window out, but she was a small lady," he recalled, explaining that he sprang into action, first trying to break the window with his elbow and then with his foot.
"It was a little freaky, but anyone in that situation would've done the same thing," he commented.
Although Darius tried to keep it all quiet, his teammates pressed him to tell the story as soon as they got wind of it, according to Devin McCourty.
"We got the hero speech," Devin said during his press conference. "He gave us his account of what happened and a lot of cheers went on."
"He'll admit there was probably some easier solutions he could have done, but I think it was nice," Devin added with a smile. "A nice dramatic kick-the-window-in-and-pull-her-out."
Matthew Slater also took time to share some thoughts on his teammate's actions.
"Darius has been a standup guy since he got here," the Patriots captain commented. "When I heard the story, I wasn't surprised at all, because you look at Darius and the way he carries himself, the way he treats people, you know, he's a tremendous young man. We're obviously all very proud of him. You never know what you'd do in that kind of situation but what he did was pretty remarkable."
Darius isn't the only Patriot to help a stranger in an emergency situation, though. After last year's AFC Championship game, **Vince Wilfork pulled a woman out of a car** that had flipped over on route one.
