Eric Berry promises to come back stronger from Achilles injury

Kansas City Chiefs safety Eric Berry took time to record a message for his teammates and fans before heading into surgery on Tuesday.

The Kansas City Chiefs will have to learn to adjust on defense to life without the do-it-all presence of All-Pro safety Eric Berry. However for those who wonder just how strong he will be when he returns, Berry wants to leave no doubts. He plans to come back better than ever before.

“I’m coming back to change the game. I’m not coming with that B.S. So everybody watch out and just know that I’m serious when I come back. Straight up,” said Berry to his agent before surgery on the video above.

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Berry went down in the fourth quarter of the Chiefs victory over the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Week 1. Berry had done a splendid job limiting Rob Gronkowski for the entire game, but came up limping on a non-contact play. Later an MRI revealed the worst case scenario, that Berry had a ruptured Achilles tendon.

The overall timeline for the Chiefs safety to return, per team trainer Rick Burkholder, is six months. The Chiefs have already placed Berry on injured reserve so his season is now finished. In his place, Ron Parker and Daniel Sorensen are expected to rotate and make up a lot of Berry’s duties, but Eric Murray and Steven Terrell are also on hand and able to help shoulder the load as necessary.

This is the third season-ending injury or illness in Berry’s pro career, following a torn ACL in 2011 and a tragic diagnosis of Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2014. His remarkable return earned him the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year award in 2015.