San Diego Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert was among 11 or 12 players trapped in a broken elevator at the team’s hotel in Dallas on Friday night.
Coach Jim Harbaugh said the players and some other members of the traveling team, including Dan Fouts’ wife, Jeri, were in the elevator without air conditioning for two hours. The Dallas Fire and Rescue Department evacuated those in the elevator “one by one” through the ceiling panel to an adjacent elevator.
“We dodged a bullet,” Harbaugh said. “I usually think of dodging a bullet or dodging a hit in football. You have to get good at it. You have to get good at making yourself harder to break.
“It was a shared experience that brought them closer together. I missed being in the elevator. It was like, ‘I wish I was there with those guys.’ But Justin Herbert was there.”
Everyone who came out of the elevator was sweating, except for Herbert, and some of the players had taken off their shirts, Harbaugh said.
“Justin Herbert’s hair was a little wet, but his shirt was completely dry,” Harbaugh said. “That was another thing that blew my mind. This guy is a beast.”
Herbert took charge of the elevator, which was stuck in a “blind shaft” between the third and fifteenth floors of the Westin Hotel in downtown Dallas.
“The great things that came out of that, for the young rookies, was that Justin Herbert was a leader. He was a rock. He kept everybody calm,” Harbaugh said. “Jerry Fouts said the same thing to me, and he stood next to me after they came out, how great Justin was. And everybody kept their cool.”
“I faced situations like this, and it was a test of will. I was proud of all the men and the two women who were in the elevator. It was a victory. You felt good about yourself. You were challenged. It was a test of will, and you were able to overcome it or overcome it. The camaraderie among this group was stronger than it had ever been before.”
Harpo even used his family’s motto to describe the situation: “Who had a better life than those guys in that elevator?!”
After rescuing all the elevator occupants, Harpo invited members of the Dallas Fire and Rescue Department’s Urban Search and Rescue Team to a team meal at the hotel.
“I would like to ask the Dallas Fire Department to bow down,” Harbaugh said. “If it weren’t for the Dallas Fire Department, things would be a lot worse. The hours would be a lot longer. Who knows how it would have turned out.”
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