By the time Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr checked his phone at halftime of Sunday's 23-10 win over the Packers, the reaction had already been piling up on his digital doorstep.
About "3,000 notifications" Barr figured he had at that time, just an hour or so after he levied the hit that led to Aaron Rodgers' broken collarbone.
"Mostly not too kind words," Barr said Friday, speaking to reporters for the first time after he cleared the concussion protocol. "But like I said, I get it. I'd be upset too if one of my quarterbacks got hurt, which they have."
Barr, who will play Sunday versus the Ravens, wanted to make something clear:
"By no means was I trying to injure or take out Aaron Rodgers," Barr said. "He's one of, if not the best, player in this league. I'm not a dirty player. We don't preach that around here."
A handful of Packers players voiced their displeasure of Barr's hit on Rodgers, which was not flagged in Sunday's game and not fined by the NFL's league office. Packers coach Mike McCarthy called Barr's hit "totally unnecessary" and "to pin him to the ground like that, I felt it was an illegal act."
Barr has seen the screenshots taken of Rodgers releasing the ball before he was hit and said "less than a quarter of a second after that I was tackling him. That's just football. It happens. It's unfortunate."
Barr added he wouldn't do anything differently while saying he understands the Packers' reaction.