The Los Angeles Chargers didn’t have a normal night at their team hotel in Dallas on Friday. Staying at the Westin downtown, around a dozen players were stuck in an elevator with no air conditioning for two hours.
Dallas Fire-Rescue sent its Urban Search and Rescue team to the hotel, and their work led to the traveling party being able to crawl through a ceiling panel and escape.
Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh said that quarterback Justin Herbert was on the elevator and that players such as rookie cornerback Tarheeb Still came up to him and said “Justin Herbert’s a leader.”
“He was a rock,” Harbaugh said, per USA Today. “Kept everybody calm.”
Harbaugh was also impressed with Herbert staying cool and collected in an elevator with no air conditioning on a day in Dallas that had temperatures in the low 90’s.
“It was hot,” Harbaugh said. “As each person came off the elevator, sweating and some had the shirt off. Justin Herbert, his hair was a little wet. But his shirt was completely dry. That was another thing that blew me away. The guy is just a beast.”
Harbaugh called the elevator incident “a shared experience” that brought the team closer together.
“Everybody kept their poise. Get in those situations, and it’s a test of wills,” Harbaugh said. “I was proud of each of the guys and the two women that were on that elevator. That’s a win. You feel good about yourself. You got it. You were challenged. And it was a test of will.”
After the elevator situation was resolved Harbaugh invited the first-responders to the Chargers team meal room at the hotel.
“The Dallas Fire Department, take a deep, long bow,” Harbaugh said, per Pro Football Talk. “Without the Dallas Fire Department, could have been a lot worse. Could have been a lot more hours. Who knows how it would have ended.”
The Chargers would go on to beat the Cowboys 26-19 on Saturday, finishing the preseason 1-2.
