I could have phrased it differently. The are many injuries that athletes play through or return before they are “100%”. Usually it comes down to a nebulous calculation which attempts to take into account the chances that the athlete can either reinjure or lengthen the recovery time. Rising playing last September would have been an example. Another would have been Jackson continuing to play last year even though he aggravated the injury every game but apparently didn’t make it worse.
On the other hand, as a football player there were always two injuries that truly worried me: ribs and Lisfranc, although in our day it was always called broken arches.
Ribs because you can’t immobilize them to allow them to heal – even breathing becomes excruciating – and playing with broken ribs leaves you exposed to reinjury on every play. I have a ton of respect for anyone who plays football with ribs injuries. Flak jackets help but it really comes down to pain threshold.
The arches because it robs you of everything that makes you an athlete. Those little bones in the feet just never seem to heal and not many realize just how important their feet are until every step feels like walking on hot coals. You can’t push off which means you lose speed and the ability to jump. And if you don’t get that foot into a boot immediately and keep it there until everything is completely healed, it can be a “lifetime” injury that leads to ankle, knee, hip, back and joint pain.
I’m not smart enough to put all of that in one quick sentence but fully support the Barton family having him sit and not risk his career for a meaningless game. And would also fully support him doing nothing more than conditioning and sitting in on meetings this spring.
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