CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- In many ways it was a normal Tuesday for Carolina Panthers tight end Hayden Hurst. He arrived at Bank of America Stadium at 9 a.m. on what normally is an off day for players, lifted weights, spent time in the sauna and steam room and met with trainers.
But little in the life of the 30-year-old Hurst has been normal the past six weeks.
The hit he took during the fourth quarter of a November 9 Thursday night loss to the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field landed him in the NFL's concussion protocol the next day. He has no memory of anything up to four hours after the game and has had some short-term memory loss since, all a part of what an independent neurologist diagnosed as post-traumatic amnesia.
Now he's on injured reserve, focused on Christmas with family, coming back better than ever in 2024 and what all this means for Hurst's future beyond football.
"The last two weeks, that's all I've thought about,'' Hurst told ESPN. "I've always been one of those guys where it's just play, you get hurt and now it's going to hurt when you're playing.
"I've never really thought about down the road, family, future. Unfortunately, when you take a hit like that, it really affects the people around you.''
Hurst didn't fully understand how much his situation was impacting those closest to him until three weeks ago when his father got upset that people on social media were accusing his son of "milking the concussion'' just to collect a paycheck.
So Jerry Hurst posted a message on X to let those outside the team and his son's inner circle know exactly how tough this has been.
"[Hayden] has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Amnesia by an independent neurologist as a result of the hit he took in Chicago November 9," the elder Hurst wrote. "Slow recovery, don't know when he'll be back. Prayers.''
Said Hayden: "He got pissed off. I'm like, Dad, I could pull up numerous tweets of people saying that I suck or blah, blah, blah. But he felt a certain way and I was like, 'Hey, man, you're 65 years old. If you want to fire off a tweet, do anything you want.' ''
The nationwide response made Hayden realize just how many cared.
"When you're in the building and it's the kind of year like we're having, you lose sight of the important things,'' said Hurst, referring to Carolina's NFL-worst 2-12 record. "Knowing I've got a lot of people in my corner that care about me, on social media and all over the country, it's been cool.''
Hurst's biggest supporter has been his fiancé, Brooke Sharpe. A former soccer player, she's been by his side through the concussion struggles just as she was with Hayden's depression that in January 2016 led him to mix pills with alcohol in a suicide attempt during his freshman year at the University of South Carolina after two years in minor league baseball didn't pan out.
Hurst detailed that time in his life in a 2020 first-person article for The Players' Tribune: "When I woke up the next morning, my wrists were all bandaged up and handcuffed to the hospital bed. I still had my shirt on. It was covered in my blood. Someone came and told me what I had done. I didn't know how to react. I had a thought. ... If I'd had a gun, I would have died last night.''
Hurst says he's in a better place now thanks to Sharpe and his loved ones.
"Obviously, that stuff never leaves you,'' he said. "But when you've got a good support system, it makes those bad days a little easier.''
Hurst said Sharpe has provided support for him during his concussion recovery by being "super patient.''
"Like last week, we were sitting there watching TV and we ordered lunch and within like 30 minutes I asked her five times what we were doing for lunch,'' Hurst said. "She's consistent for me, which is perfect for me because this is unchartered territory.
"I've played through torn ligaments and broken bones, but I've never had memory loss.''
Hurst suffered his concussion when he went up for a pass that was broken up by Bears safety Jaquan Brisker.
"My head whiplashed on the ground,'' Hurst said.
Hurst went to the blue sideline tent to be medically evaluated and was cleared to return.
Dr. John J. Leddy, the director of the University at Buffalo Concussion Management Clinic, said it's not unusual for there to be a gap in time between when the concussion occurs and the symptoms.
That Hurst had memory loss for about four hours, he said, showed the severity of the concussion.
"Maybe a few seconds or a few minutes,'' he said of the typical memory loss. "Brief post-traumatic amnesia, like seconds to minutes, I'd say happens in maybe 10% of the concussions I see.''
Leddy said he treated an NFL player several years ago who was hit in the head in the first half and didn't tell anybody, then played the second half and scored a touchdown.
"The next day, when I saw him, he didn't remember any of that,'' Leddy said. "You say to yourself, how is that possible? But you've got to remember these are elite guys and symptoms of concussions can be delayed.''
Hurst isn't sure exactly what he said in the blue tent that allowed him to be cleared. He credits fellow Carolina tight end Tommy Tremble for making trainers aware his situation was worse than first suspected while he was doing interviews.
"I kept asking him, 'What happened? What happened? What happened?' '' Hurst said. "After like one hundred times he was like, 'Hey, you guys need to look at Hayden.' ''
Hurst had to be told that story.
"I did interviews, saw my family, and I don't remember it,'' Hurst said. "They didn't think that I realized I was talking to them. My own fiancé was like, 'I didn't recognize you.''
Hurst doesn't remember anything that happened until he woke up on the plane four hours later.
"That was the scary part,'' he said.
Since then, Hurst has seen four specialists and gone through countless tests. On Wednesday, he hopes to be cleared from Step 4 of the five-part process the NFL requires for players to return to play.
He said the decisions to put him on season-ending injured reserve was the team being extremely cautious, which he appreciates.
"I know people are concerned, but by no means is this career-threatening,'' Hurst said. "If I rushed back and played in a game and took another hit, who knows how far that would set me back.''
From that standpoint, Tuesday was anything but normal for Hurst. It was his first day of offseason conditioning and another step toward being fully cleared after the season finale "so I'll be ready to go next year.''
Hurst understands there will be skeptics asking why he would want to resume his career with evidence mounting of players suffering and dying later in life from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disorder caused by repeated head injuries.
That's why he's spent the past two weeks thinking about the 45-year-old Hayden Hurst.
Hurst says he understands the risk, but he's excited about the future, a place he never imagined in 2016 when depression overtook him. He says he can't wait to marry Sharpe in February 2025 and also to prove he was worthy of the first-round pick (No. 25 overall) the Baltimore Ravens used on him in 2018.
"The past couple of weeks I've been able to take a step back and appreciate the beauty of my life,'' Hurst said. "It's been a helluva 11 years to get to this spot. My football journey hasn't exactly been the smoothest.
"But having my family here with me -- they're driving up [Friday from Jacksonville, Fla.] and we're gonna have a full house for Christmas -- it kind of puts your priorities in place.''