Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers, can't be a place that New Orleans Saints wide receiver Chris Olave is fond of. It was at that stadium last year where he suffered a concussion that knocked him out of the season.
The concussion had even raised some questions about his career's longevity, as it was his fourth in just three seasons. However, after talks with specialists, he was given the green light to return to the football field. On Sunday, it would be the first time since the initial injury that he's returned to the scene of the crime.
Olave said that at first, he didn't think about it that much. "But when I came into the stadium, I just felt it all again. I had anxiety pregame," the wide receiver said to the media postgame. "There was a lot of stuff that was going on. Close people knew what was going on, and they just stuck by my side, and I appreciate them all for that."
Saints WR Chris Olave put his injury behind him and played his heart out against the Panthers
On Sunday, Olave went out and faced his fears. Showing no sign of the anxiety he mentioned after the fact, the New Orleans Saints wide receiver had his second-best game of the season, gathering 104 receiving yards and one touchdown on five catches.
Scratch that, his performance in Charlotte, I think, was better than his two-touchdown performance in Chicago. The win obviously has a factor in this, but the fact that he was able to have the game he did while fighting back his anxieties is beyond impressive.
It was also his first game without fellow wide receiver Rashid Shaheed, who was traded to the Seattle Seahawks at the deadline. Far and away the team's best wide receiver on paper now, Olave showed that much on the field on Sunday. Perhaps now the extension talks the receiver himself mentioned earlier in the year could start heating up a bit.
With a good experience in Carolina to put in his memory banks, Olave might feel a weight off of his shoulders. He could really pop off now, which should cause the Saints' next opponent, the Atlanta Falcons, to start sweating.