"Health" Archive

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Yesterday Peyton Manning was cleared to return to football. I still don’t understand what, exactly, that means [Update: Jim Irsay has said that the team is releasing a statement today as Manning as NOT been cleared by the team to play]. I also don’t know why he’d even consider playing after three neck surgeries involving bones being fused and scary things of that nature. Apparently Rodney Harrison doesn’t either. Harrison, along with other NBCers were on a panel for the debut of Bob Costas’s new show “Costas Tonight” and Harrison took a moment to address player safety and injuries. Harrison was clearly emotional and having some trouble expressing his himself coherently-maybe he didn’t want to go too far in criticizing the sport. But he started a sentence by saying if he’d known NOW what he knew back then when he was trying to establish his reputation as a hitter he… but then he didn’t complete the thought.

During his speaking turn, Harrison also mentioned his own chronic discomfort, headaches, and short term memory loss saying that his wife is constantly checking on him. He finished by addressing Manning’s situation. He didn’t come right out and say that Manning shouldn’t return but he did say that Manning should walk away before he ends up in a wheel chair. It’s worth watching if only because you don’t see Harrison’s sensitive side very often. I’m sure many of us remember hating Harrison as a player and thinking of him as dirty years ago when he was knocking folks down for the Patriots.

Odd moment with Cris Collinsworth, though. I didn’t see the show live so I don’t know if this was the result of choppy editing or not. But after Harrison is done talking, Collinswoth goes on a somewhat defensive tangent about how his sons play football and how it turns boys into men. It seemed off color since Harrison just explained how football also turns boys into men with chronic pain. I also thought it was tone deaf for a former wide receiver to make that point given that it’s a “safer” position. This is not to say that WRs don’t banged up too…when Chris Henry died his autopsy showed early signs of serious brain damage. But I have to acknowledge that being a hard hitting safety is a little different from playing wide receiver. Again, it could have been the editing. If you saw it live, let me know.

Steelers Safety Ryan Clark, a man whom I do not know and therefore was unfortunately not able to slap this week.

I’m just going to repeat the headline.

The last time Pittsburgh Steelers Safety Ryan Clark played in Denver he lost his spleen, gallbladder and 30lbs. He could have lost his life. I swear I’m not making this up. Clark has sickle cell trait-which I also have-something that really doesn’t bother most people who don’t hurl themselves into other people at extremely high altitudes.

Now here’s the part where I become a big old girl.

All week I could not figure out why there was a discussion about whether or not Clark would play or not. Some things just don’t bear discussion. Given what happened last time he played in Denver it seemed obvious to me that he would not play. I realize players want to be tough, but I also realize there is a really thick bright red line between “tough” and “stupid” and the Steelers would have played double dutch back and forth across that line by letting Clark even suit up. I don’t even think he should travel with the team much less play.

The other thing that’s a non-factor for me is that it’s a playoff game. If the Steelers defense can’t stop the Broncos’ barely-there offense without Ryan Clark their chances of going deep into the playoffs probably aren’t very good. No need for Clark to risk his life for a one game playoff push.

And while we’re on the subject of the Steelers, they were also unwise to allow Ben Roethlisberger to play with a high ankle sprain. There was one series in the game against the 49ers where Big Ben was sacked on every single snap. And Troy Polamalu who has been diagnosed with several concussions during the course of his career and two this season simply doesn’t seem himself as of late but continues to force his way into games despite continued concussion-like symptoms. So I don’t know why I was surprised to hear that Clark was willing to play but that Tomlin made the ultimate call. Unless there are some strange politics I don’t know about that called for the team to pretend Clark playing was ever on the table, I think a strong argument could be made that the Pittsburgh Steelers might not be the brainiest organization in the NFL.

I’m glad that Clark will sit but the fact that there was any doubt he wouldn’t after what happened last time kind of makes it hard to believe players and teams can be trusted to report concussions and other longterm impact problems. The NFL will continue to have its hands full when it comes to getting teams to make safety a priority.

Michael Vick used his press conference today to prove he's willing to make smart decisions going forward.

There’s an old corny joke I like to tell. Wanna hear it? Here it go.

When Michael Vick does the Tootsie Roll and they get to the part where you have to slide, he just stops dancing. hahahahaah ahhahah ha ha hee…

Whatever, that joke is funny TO ME.

But what’s not funny is following Vick’s career for 239239930 years and watching this knucklehead use any means to avoid going to the ground including having other people knock his ass to the ground. I HAVE BEEN FED UP. And apparently he is too.

In his press conference today he, according to Philly media, said that he would begin sliding because he can’t keep risking the team having all these injuries. I don’t know why it took so long, I don’t know who was able to finally impress this upon him (a doctor maybe?) but I am glad this day has come.

If Vick can slide AND focus on getting the ball out of his hands a lot quicker, you will see the Eagles offense take a serious turn for the better. Howard Mudd has worked miracles with the Eagles offensive line. On one of Vick’s surprisingly few sacks he held the ball for 6.5 seconds, a lot of the other ones happened around the 4.5 and 5 second mark. He has forever to go through his progressions, find a hot read, run or extend the play some other way. And this is actually a part of the problem. Vick has too many choices and too much time. His natural ability has made him too confident and, and in a sense, mentally lazy.

I’d like to see him challenge himself to keep himself limited to three step drops as much as possible for the rest of the season and see where it takes him and the offense. I mean their season is over, they ain’t doing shit on Sundays but practicing anyway. Let’s make it worthwhile.

Congrats to Vick for making one of the best decisions of his life even thought it came years too late and seemed like the most obvious thing in the world to anyone watching. But yeah like I said good for you! lol

I really do like Michael Vick. I know you can’t tell. But I adore him though I remain bitter about a lot that happened in Atlanta. But he’s a cancer male. They’re the best men on Earth. I stand by that.

Other Cancers I adore: Darrelle Revis, Nnamdi Asomugha, and Brandon Lloyd. All born in July too.

Jay Cutler just can't catch a break. Get it? break. haha...ha...ha. Oh well. Photo via Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images courtesy of Sports Illustrated

I can only hope that one day an entire season will go by without someone questioning Jay Cutler’s toughness and commitment to the team or whining about some face he made (or didn’t make). During the week 11 games Cutler broke his thumb and had surgery on it which could put him out for 6 weeks. Well, 6 weeks is way optimistic, 8 or 9 weeks sounds more like it. That means he’d be out into the playoffs. Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger has also been diagnosed with a thumb break, and the fact that he isn’t going to miss a game set the sports talk word on fire with people, once again, insisting that Cutler is just a big old pussy. WRONG.

After hearing questions Monday over the airwaves wondering why Bears quarterback Jay Cutler can’t play with a broken thumb in his throwing hand the way Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is, Dr. Mark Cohen offered a second opinion.

It doesn’t mean Big Ben has a bigger threshold for pain. It simply means Cutler has a different injury.

“Jay Cutler having the surgery now means the bone is broken and shifted or displaced and is not what they call a stable fracture,” said Cohen, a hand surgeon at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush. “It’s an unstable fracture. On those you can’t wait because they’ll heal crooked or won’t heal properly. The guy had a significant thumb injury and he’s got to have the bone fixed so the bone can heal. He has no choices. The doctors have no choices. This is cut-and-dried.”

Let’s repeat this again for the slow muthafuckers in the back:

It doesn’t mean Big Ben has a bigger threshold for pain. It simply means Cutler has a different injury.It doesn’t mean Big Ben has a bigger threshold for pain. It simply means Cutler has a different injury.It doesn’t mean Big Ben has a bigger threshold for pain. It simply means Cutler has a different injury.It doesn’t mean Big Ben has a bigger threshold for pain. It simply means Cutler has a different injury.

It’s no secret that Ben Roethlisberger is my favorite QB and one of the things I like the most about him is the toughness he exudes both mentally and physically. But there are plenty of times when being tough crosses the line into being dumb as a bag of rocks and my honey Ben is no stranger to either concept.

This whole comparison habit people have reared its ugly head again when some, stupidly, compared Michael Vick’s rib injury to Tony Romo’s rib injury. I’m no doctor, but it seems common sense would tell folks that all rib injuries are NOT the same. Further, given the fact that players have different styles of play (not to mention throwing motions), it would follow that even if two players had the EXACT same injury (which isn’t likely) one may be able to play while the other couldn’t.

I was really upset at the suggestion that Vick should play with his rib injury just because Tony Romo did especially since the Eagles season is all but officially over and the team does need a healthy QB for next season. But that’s still really besides the point. All the newly minted ‘doctors’ in the sports world really need take a step back and stop rushing to see who can be the most foolish.

But far be it from me to insist that facts should impede a person’s ability to mock a player.

1. Calling Ndamukong Suh dirty -

Look at this little baby face! Now is this the face of somebody who would take your QB and throw him around like a rag doll? (hint: the answer is yes)

I’m not prepared to say that Suh is dirty yet. Right now I think he’s exuberant. Excitable. Enthusiastic. Perhaps passionate to a fault. But dirty? No. Suh’s no Hines Ward or Cortland Finnegan. He’s just over zealous sometimes and I think that’s okay. I have a feeling he will learn how to channel it (and get away with it).

2. Thursday Night games — Yeah I said it! Starting week 9 there will be a game every Thursday night for the rest of the season (same as last year). The NFL is in talks to have Thursday night games all season long on a network other than NFLnetwork. I do not want this. Football takes up a lot of my time. And as a person who has no life, but aspires to have one one day, being consumed with football on Sunday, Monday and Thursday is not gonna help me find a husband. Or even a baby daddy, for that matter.

3. Nnamdi Asomugha’s hair -

Nnamdi got tired of everyone raving about how handsome he is so he decided to put this thing on his head.

Let me start out by saying “no shade” “no offense” “not trying to insult anyone” “just my 2 cents” and all other sorts of disclaimers you give before you say something bordering on mean. I have tried to ignore Nnamdi’s hair because he’s just so darn great otherwise. But today, he was on MSNBC’s Education Nation panel (and did a fabulous job) and his hair was as wrong as ever. I AM FED UP NNAMDI! I have had it up to here with your bullshit.  I want that thing on your head gone by Sunday or you are going to feel the wrath. Sort of. No you won’t. But still. You need to cut that shit off.

4. Rex Grossman -

When Rex speaks I want to make him choose between silence and violence.

Rex Grossman is such douchelord. I hate that term but I don’t know how else to describe him. The more he wins the more miserable it will be for fans across America. He is just annoying. I mean, he really thinks he has HATERS. Rex, you don’t have haters, you have people who’ve watched you play before. Had the Skins beat the Cowboys we would have heard all sorts of unwanted commentary from Rex all week. Even God refused to let that happen. Is there something about the name Rex that requires you to be too chatty for my tastes! Cause Rex Ryan doesn’t exactly soothe my nerves either.

5. Quarterback Injuries - I don’t know how to stop this, but I’m already worn out by Mark Sanchez’s broken nose, Tony Romo’s ribs and lung, Michael Vick’s concussion and bruised-but-you-know-it’s-probably-broken hand, Matt Ryan’s knee, Peyton’s neck, Kerry Collins’ concussion. We haven’t even found out what kind of injury Jay Cutler is definitely going to sustain yet. I just don’t want to see a whole lot of sloppy starting-Quarterbackless football.

I’m open to other things that MUST BE STOPPED, but this is my list.