Nick Collins, who reportedly was supposed to have a sit-down meeting with the Green Bay Packers to discuss his playing prospects in 2012 a week ago, has yet to meet with his team and will not do so until after next week's draft, Collins' agent told the Green Bay Press-Gazette on Tuesday.
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The safety's agent, Alan Herman, said the meeting is contingent on Collins receiving all the necessary medical advice to make an informed decision on whether or not he should return to football after suffering a gruesome neck injury in Week 2 of the 2011 season, an injury that later required single-fusion surgery.
"All the opinions aren't in, and I think he's getting another opinion," Herman told the Press-Gazette. "That doctor was not available. He was on vacation, so I'm hopeful soon. But I think he's got another meeting with one of the doctors."
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday that Collins is seeking opinions from five different spinal surgeons, and both Herman and the Packers want a consensus on whether it's safe for Collins to return to football. The newspaper also reported that while Collins wants to return to the game, he's agreed to retire if there the final results from his surgery show any kind of abnormality.
Packers coach Mike McCarthy already went on the record during last month's NFL Annual Meeting that he would not let Collins play football again if he was his son, and Collins' own agent later took a similar stance.
Collins made three consecutive trips to the Pro Bowl from 2008 through 2010 and returned an interception for a touchdown in the Packers' Super Bowl win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. His healthy return would be a huge boost to a Packers secondary that struggled last season. Herman, however, said he doesn't have any clearer sense whether Collins will get the OK to play.
"No," he said. "That's what I'm waiting to hear from all the doctors."
