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Christian Watson didn’t literally come back from the dead on “Thursday Night Football.”

But what the Green Bay Packers receiver pulled off during his team’s 27-19 win over the Carolina Panthers was nearly as dramatic.

“He resurrected himself,” quarterback Jordan Love said during a postgame interview on Prime Video.

Injured while making a 53-yard catch at the 9:11 mark of the second quarter — he later said he might have landed with the ball or his elbow in his chest — Watson was having trouble breathing on the field and coughed up some blood on the sideline. Prime cameras showed him climbing into an ambulance under his own power and still wearing his pads.

Less than an hour later, the same cameras showed Watson climbing out of the ambulance and jogging out of the tunnel at Lambeau Field, much to the surprise and delight of his teammates and the crowd.

“It was super dramatic,” Watson told reporters in the locker room after the game. “I used to watch WWE as a kid — I felt like I was watching ‘WWE SmackDown vs. Raw’ or something out there, you know, seeing the cameras on me when I got out of the ambulance, that was a little crazy. It was a surreal experience, no doubt, just to go through that and have you know the fans cheering for me getting back out there. It was definitely exciting.”

It was a scene Watson would have liked to have avoided in the first place.

“I never wanted to go” to the hospital, Watson said during an on-field interview with Prime after the game. “I was hoping that they would let me off. I said it was feeling better once I kind of caught my breath, but they said there was a couple signs that made them have to take me over there. I was just praying that it was good enough where I could come back out here.”

Watson, who was able to keep up with the game on a doctor’s phone, said he was told he had broken a rib. He was cleared to return after a CT scan showed no signs of internal bleeding.

“I was spitting a little blood [on the sideline] at first, so they just wanted to make sure there was nothing crazy,” Watson said. “I cleared everything and was able to get back out.”

Donning extra padding to protect his ribs, Watson re-entered the game with 4:01 remaining in the third quarter and was targeted on the first play. The deep pass from Love was knocked away by Carolina’s Nick Scott, with Panthers cornerback Marco Wilson landing on Watson’s chest at the end of the play.

But the NFL’s second-leading receiver said he was happy just to be back on the field.

“I had so much adrenaline that it didn’t really hit me right away, but definitely, definitely felt that one,” said Watson, who caught two passes for 13 yards after his return and finished the night with eight catches for 113 yards.

“That’s pretty remarkable,” coach Matt LaFleur said of Watson’s performance. “He had a heck of a night. Just can’t imagine what he would have had had he not missed so much time.”

“I think it shows resiliency, I think it shows toughness, and I think it just shows the love that he has for this team,” safety Xavier McKinney told reporters after the game. “Sometimes, you might see that happen and he had his 100 yards, and he could’ve just sat it. But the fact that he wasn’t satisfied and the fact that he felt like and he knew that we still needed him out there and he still said, ‘OK, I love this team and I want to be able to go out here for this team and do that,’ that gains our respect.”

WHEN crusading journalist Chris Hansen told his guests to “have a seat” they really did need to sit down – because they were men who’d been caught discussing having sex with children.

His hit US TV show To Catch a Predator spawned hundreds of copycats across the globe, where online vigilante groups snare alleged paedophiles in similar stings.

Now Hansen is considering suing Robert Pattinson for the way the British actor has portrayed him in a controversial new movie called Primetime.

That’s because the Batman star’s Oscar-tipped film makes the reporter, who confronted potential child sex offenders in front of the cameras, the bad guy rather than the abusers his ground-breaking program exposed.

In the mid-2000s Hansen’s show To Catch a Predator worked with law enforcement and an online vigilante group to reveal the depraved men thinking of having sex with under 16s.

Nearly 200 men were arrested, including an agent for the Department of Homeland Security, a teacher and a firefighter.

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The NBC show ended in 2007 after a district attorney with an interest in teenage boys shot himself before Hansen could quiz him.

To many predator hunters Hansen is a hero.

But Batman star Pattinson depicts the 67-year-old journalist as an ego driven prima donna chiefly interested in ratings and getting To Catch a Predator onto prime time telly.

Emmy award winner Hansen, who is still bringing alleged child abusers to book on a different show, is angry about Primetime, which is in UK cinemas now.

He raged: “I think it’s an insult to the thousands of men and women who work hard every day to protect children from predators. 

“They turn something that is very positive, very challenging and not without risk into what is essentially a horror film.

“I guess it’s not surprising that a Hollywood studio would act in such an exploitative or predatory manner. 

“We’re talking about an industry that was led by perhaps one of the biggest predators to walk the planet, Harvey Weinstein.”

In 2004 when To Catch a Predator set its first trap, Hansen didn’t even know if any child abusers would fall into it.

Back then social media was still in its infancy, with Facebook only available to university students.

But an US online vigilante group called Perverted Justice realised that depraved men were using chat rooms on sites such as AOL and Yahoo to contact minors.

Hansen decided to link up with them to expose this danger. 

Perverted Justice used adult males and females who looked like children to set up profiles as under 15s in the chat rooms.

They then waited for the men to make the first move, with many of the digital deviants quickly sending explicit questions.

Perverted Justice’s decoys strung them along, hoping they would ask to visit them.

Rather than going to the ‘children’s’ homes, though, they were turning up at a suburban house filled with hidden cameras.

The decoy greeted them at the door, led them to the kitchen and made an excuse to leave the room.

At that point Hansen would walk in and ask them to “have a seat.”

He recalled: “In the first investigation, we didn’t know what was going to happen. We had partnered with Perverted Justice and I didn’t know if we were going to get anybody showing up. 

“Yet, there we were over two and a half days in Long Island and 17 guys surfaced, including a New York City firefighter.”

Even more potential sex offenders turned up for the next sting in the capital Washington DC.

One of them was rabbi David Kaye, who was later jailed for six and a half years for trying to solicit sex from a 13-year-old boy over the internet.

Wishing to make sure more of these men were brought to book, the NBC show teamed up with the police.

Cops in Harris County, Texas were waiting to arrest the men after Hansen confronted them in 2006.

This was dangerous work for all involved, because two of the alleged offenders were serving soldiers.

When one of the men did a runner he was tasered.

Hansen was praised in Congress for his work, with the show leading the House of Representatives to investigate the threat of online predators.

As To Catch a Predator’s ratings climbed and climbed, human rights lawyers started to question its ethics.

In many parts of the US it was an offence to attempt to entice a minor to have sex, but there were suggestions of entrapment. 

There were calls for catching criminals to be left to the professionals.

That’s exactly what Hansen’s show appeared to do when Perverted Justice realised that Texan prosecutor Bill Conradt was the man messaging someone pretending to be aged 13.

When Conradt wouldn’t go to the To Catch a Predator house in Murphy, Texas in November 2006 the police chief decided to go to him.

With Hansen’s TV crew following them, the armed officers smashed their way into his home.

But when they arrived Conradt shot himself dead.

The prosecutor’s relatives sued NBC, winning a £75million out of court settlement.

Charges against 23 other men in Murphy, Texas were dropped because the online chats had not taken place in the county.

To Catch a Predator was scrapped.

It is the build up to Conradt’s death that forms the tense finale to Primetime, which has been a hit at the US box office.

It depicts Hansen as desperate to snare the powerful district attorney at all costs.

Pattinson’s version of the veteran journalist sneers, snarls and shouts at his team.

Variety magazine described the actor’s portrait of Hansen “as a horror villain” and Hansen thinks it is “unhinged.”

Primetime shows little interest in the sex offenders and focuses more on the journalist’s alleged affair with a younger woman.

In 2011 the paparazzi caught the married father-of-two meeting TV news reporter Kristyn Caddell, who was 21 years his junior.

Hansen denied cheating on his wife Mary Joan, who divorced him seven years later.

He has talked about suing the film’s producers, which include Pattinson, but isn’t keen to get caught up in a legal case.

The actor defended his movie, commenting: “The fact that people are still discussing the ethics of it, of a 20-year-old TV show, it’s absolutely insane.” 

The reason the ethics of To Catch a Predator are being discussed so keenly is that predator hunting is even more relevant today than it was two decades ago.

According to the children’s charity the NSPCC over 9,000 child sex abuse offences in the UK a year “involved an online element.” 

Hansen continues to name and shame such offenders on an online TV channel called TruBlu.

It is estimated that 140 vigilante groups in the UK are also trying to snare paedophiles online.

Cambridge University academic Mark de Rond, who last year appeared in a documentary titled Predators about the impact of Hansen’s show, spent time working with these secretive organisations.

He questions the way that To Catch a Predator “commercialised” the “public humiliation” of the men the show caught.

But he defends the groups which are trying to expose online sexual offenders, telling The Sun: “Paedophilia is a crime, it’s kind of the lowest of the low and it’s the kind of crime that really almost any means can justify when you are trying to stop it.

”Because what can be more important to keep a kid safe?”

That, though, is not the perspective of Primetime.

Near the end of the film, Pattinson says to one of his doubters “your definition of bad and my definition of bad are vastly different.”

Many cinemagoers watching the movie are likely to think the same thing, but for different reasons.

Josh Hoover had a four-yard touchdown run in overtime and No. 6 Indiana then kept Michigan out of the end zone in a 13-6 win on Saturday in Ann Arbor.

The defending national champion Hoosiers (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) avoided losing two in a row for the first time in three years with coach Curt Cignetti — and won at the Big House for the first time since 1967.

The Wolverines (4-3, 1-3) started quarterback Tommy Carr and sat Bryce Underwood, but the freshman didn’t fare as well as he did last week coming off the bench in a win over Penn State.

Carr lost a fumble on an ill-advised pitch in the first quarter and had a pass intercepted in the second half. He took sacks in the second and third quarters that led to missed field goals, including a 32-yard kick after advancing to the Indiana one-yard line.

Michigan reached the Hoosiers three in the final minute of regulation when Carr was sacked for a fourth time, leading to a 26-yard field goal as time expired.

at Cincinnati 37, No. 8 Texas Tech 24: Cole Tabb had a career-high 173 rushing yards and a touchdown while JC French IV threw for a career-high four touchdown passes in the Bearcats’ stunning upset.

It was the Bearcats first win over a top-10 team at home since Nov. 18, 2006, when they defeated No. 7 Rutgers 30-11. Cincinnati won at ninth-ranked Notre Dame in 2021.

The Red Raiders (6-1, 3-1) failed go 7-0 for the first time since 2013 and were plagued by mistakes all afternoon.

at No. 1 Miami 52, Pittsburgh 23: Malachi Toney had a school-record 16 catches and Dariah Mensah threw for 387 yards and four touchdowns in the Hurricanes’ first game as the nation’s top-ranked team in nearly 24 years.

Toney finished with 194 receiving yards and three touchdown catches, while Javian Mallory rushed for two scores and Mark Fletcher Jr. moved into the No. 2 spot on Miami’s all-time list with the 33rd rushing TD of his career.

Miami native Blue Hicks had five catches for 149 yards and a touchdown for Pitt (5-3, 2-3), which dropped its third consecutive game.

No. 10 Louisiana State 38, at Auburn 17: Sam Leavitt accounted for four touchdowns, including two throws to speedster Jackson Harris, and the visitors ended an eight-game, road-losing streak in Southeastern Conference play.

Leavitt completed 32 of 45 passes for a career-high 387 yards, ran for 54 more and played turnover-free football for the second consecutive week.

LSU (6-2, 4-2 SEC) scored on five of six possessions in the first half to take a commanding 31-10 lead into halftime. Harris caught nine passes for 178 yards, scoring on a 10-yard strike and turning a 12-yard crossing route into a 70-yard sprint.

Auburn (4-3, 2-3) seemed to have a letdown a week after stunning then-No. 1 Georgia on the road.

at No. 23 Southern Methodist 59, California 20: Kevin Jennings threw three touchdowns to break the Mustangs’ career record while Kendrick Raphael ran for 104 yards while accounting for three scores, two on fourth-down plays, in the rout.

SMU (6-1, 4-1 ACC) trailed at halftime before scoring touchdowns on their first six drives after the break, when it gained 306 of its 492 total yards. Jennings, already SMU’s career leader for passing yards (9,766) and completions (781), surpassed the 72 scoring passes by Tanner Mordecai from 2021-22.

Freshman running back Christian Rhodes had touchdown runs of five and three yards in SMU’s scoring surge in the second half, while Cal (3-5, 2-3) opened with three consecutive three-and-outs.

at No. 24 Northwestern 42, Rutgers 14: Aidan Chiles threw three touchdowns for the third time this season and rushed for two others to lead the Wildcats to a fourth straight victory.

Caleb Komolafe rushed for 150 yards and a TD, including a 56-yard dash. Griffin Wilde, who finished with 133 receiving yards, Alex Honig and Drew Wagner caught passes for scores as Northwestern (6-1, 3-1 Big Ten) raced to a 28-3 lead late in the first half.

Antwan Raymond rushed for 150 yards on 18 carries and the lone Rutgers (2-5, 1-3 Big Ten) touchdown, a 46-yard run late in the third. The score was set up by the first interception thrown this season by Chiles, who finished with 219 passing yards and 83 rushing.

A look at the top performers from high school football games across the Southland this week.

RUSHING

• Matix Frithsmith, Hart: Rushed for 160 yards and scored four touchdowns in win over Golden Valley.

• Kayden Phillips, Anaheim Canyon: Rushed for 151 yards and three touchdowns in win over St. Margret’s.

• Tru Warrior Casas, Fairfax: Rushed for 367 yards and four touchdowns in win over Westchester.

• AJ McBean, Gardena Serra: Rushed for 266 yards and three touchdowns in loss to Bishop Amat.

• Semaj Welch, Inglewood: Rushed for 151 yards and one touchdown in win over Mira Costa.

• Ceasar Reyes, Garfield: Rushed for 374 yards and five touchdowns in 39 carries in win over Bell.

• William Bryant, Chino Hills: Rushed for 142 yards and one touchdown in win over Damien.

• Christian Reis, Palos Verdes: Rushed for 117 yards and three touchdowns in win over Long Beach Millikan.

• Maliq Allen, St. John Bosco: Rushed for 180 yards and three touchdowns in win over JSerra.

• Amir Morton, Crespi: Rushed for 109 yards and two touchdowns in win vs. La Salle.

• Moyosoreoluwa Odebunmi, Cleveland: Rushed for 109 yards and two touchdowns in win over Birmingham.

• Ryan Christianson, Orange Lutheran: Rushed for 114 yards and four touchdowns in win over Servite.

• Eric Wright, South East: Rushed for 155 yards and one touchdown in loss to Huntington Park.

PASSING

• Tahj Skinner, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame: Passed for three touchdowns, returned an interception for a touchdown in win over Chaminade.

• Dominic Golia, West Torrance: Passed for 277 yards and four touchdowns in win over North Torrance.

• Jaden Jefferson, Corona Centennial: Passed for 219 yards and four touchdowns in win over Vista Murrieta.

• Dane Weber, Chaparral: In his first appearance of the season because of injury, passed for 200 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 120 yards and one touchdown in win over Murrieta Valley.

• Trevor Scott, Long Beach Poly: Passed for 289 yards and five touchdowns in sophomore debut during a win over Lakewood.

• Seth Solorio, San Pedro: Completed 13 of 17 passes for 218 yards and four touchdowns in win over Banning.

• Reagan Toki, Orange Lutheran: Passed for 250 yards and three touchdowns in win over Servite.

• Eiler King, San Juan Hills: Passed for 473 yards and seven touchdowns in win over Los Alamitos.

• Talon Spencer, Capistrano Valley: Passed for two touchdowns, ran for two touchdowns in win over La Habra.

• Chase Curren, Crespi: Completed 10 of 11 passes for 191 yards and four touchdowns in win over La Salle.

• Dominik Hardy, Calabasas: Passed for 255 yards and one touchdown in win over Oak Park.

RECEIVING

• Michael Farinas, Chaparral: Caugh four passes for 130 yards and one touchdown in win over Murrieta Valley.

• Braeden Villegas, San Pedro: Caught four passes for 149 yards and three touchdowns in win over Banning.

• Raiden Velasquez, Orange Lutheran: Caught four passes for 153 yards and three touchdowns in win over Servite.

• Luke Frith, San Juan Hills: Caught eight passes for 197 yards and three touchdowns in win over Los Alamitos.

• Mica Weaver, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame: Caught touchdown passes of 50 and 51 yards in win over Chaminade.

• Kingston Celifie, Calabasas: Caught eight passes for 103 yards vs. Oak Park.

DEFENSE

• Xavier Brooks, Laguna Beach: Recorded two sacks and blocked a field goal in win over Troy.

• Turner Odell, Chino Hills: Returned two interceptions for touchdowns in win over Damien.

• Evan Rojas, Los Altos: Returned an interception for a touchdown and rushed for 98 yards in win over West Covina.

• Dorian Franklin, St. John Bosco: Had two interceptions in win over JSerra.

• Isaia Vandermade, Santa Margarita: Had two of his team’s seven sacks in win over Mater Dei.

• Maddox Mataele, Mission Viejo: Had two sacks in win over Edison.

• Adonis Washington, South East: Had nine solo tackles vs. Huntington Park.

SPECIAL TEAMS

• Colin Elia, Temecula Valley: Made three field goals, including a 49-yarder, and had two punts that landed inside the 10-yard line in win over Corona Santiago.

• Jake Martin, Santa Margarita: Blocked one field goal, pressured to force another miss in win over Mater Dei.

• Oliver White, Crespi: Returned kickoff 88 yards for touchdown and had six tackles in win over La Salle.