Stewart sits out first NFL preseason game

Olympian news services • Published August 10, 2008

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Rookie running back Jonathan Stewart, a former star at Timberline High School in Lacey, will have to wait to make his NFL debut.

Stewart, a first-round draft pick in April, sat out the Carolina Panthers’ 23-20 preseason win over the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday, partly because he still has soreness in his right big toe, which underwent surgery in March.

Not playing tested his patience.

“It’s like the itch on my back I can’t really reach either,” Stewart told the Charlotte Observer said after the game. “I mean, I’m itching to get out there. But we’re just playing it smart.”

Asked if he was held out of the game for precautionary reasons or because his toe simply wasn’t recovered enough for him to be in a game, Stewart said: “I think it was a little bit of both. The doctors here know what they’re doing.”