"Hurt Locker" Archive

Maybe it’s the teenage boy in me, but seeing a severed finger is SO COOL. Cardinals DB Rashad Johnson says he took off his glove and part of his finger remained inside. Apparently he thought he tore a nail off when he saw blood leading out but nope. NOPE. It was his finger tip.

Johnson later posted the photo to Twitter/Instagram.

omg!

 @49foyamind49 More on Rashad’s finger repair check out Freep’s story. [Source: Cardinals Rashad Johnson hopes to play despite losing part of finger.]

I live in DC, so I saw quite a few Redskins games this season and I definitely did not notice the field being in poor condition before yesterday’s contest with the Seahawks. But yesterday it looked horrible — grass was flying, guys were slipping and getting stuck.

Apparently, Fed Ex field is made up of Bermuda grass and there was some talk of having it re-sodded. I’m actually surprised that the Redskins play on grass because my understanding is that grass may be a bit more upkeep and it’s well known that Skins owner Dan Snyder is a fan of cutting corners.

Coach Mike Shanahan was asked about the re-sodding and he had this to say:

“Sometimes resodding is good. I’ve had resodding that’s worked quite well. I’ve been on some resods that were very, very poor. We rushed for a lot of yards last week and the surface was good enough to not slip, so that’s a pretty good sign. I know it doesn’t look that good but relative to the footwork, I didn’t think it was bad at all from a running back standpoint as well as the wide receivers. I didn’t see people slipping and so that’s a good sign. Anyway, both teams have to play on the field.”

This interview was just a few days before the game and obviously by then the field was quite slippery as cleats kept getting stuck in the grass. In fact, Seahawks Chris Clemons may have torn his ACL when his cleat got stuck.

After reading these comments, I remembered that Seahawks Safety Kam Chancellor had tweeted about Fed Ex Field when the Seahawks got to the stadium on Saturday. I’ve heard lots of players say they enjoy grass much better and look forward to playing on it, but Chancellor went a step further and also said the field looked great.

I love playing on natural grass. The field looks great to me.

— Kameron (@Kam_Chancellor) January 5, 2013

Update: NFL.com has reported that the Seahawks have filed a claim with the league regarding the condition of Fed Ex Field.

Baltimore Ravens CB Lardarius Webb is a joy to watch on the field. If you love DB play you have to be hoping he comes back and resume where he left off — at the top of the heap.

Everybody loves Ray Lewis. I love Ray Lewis. You love Ray Lewis. Well, maybe YOU don’t. But Ray Lewis is loved. So loved that the media waited until he tore his tricep and was officially out for the season to come out from under the covers and admit that he hasn’t been playing so well. 

I would never go so far as to say that losing Ray makes the Ravens defense better, but I have seen a few who written as much.  What I will say, however, is that the Ravens defense may get speedier and speed matters for a team that used to get 3 guys to the ball on many plays but now struggles just to get 1 there on time. The Ravens have struggled to rush to the QB, struggled in the middle of the field, and struggled to stop the run. This is not all Rays’ fault, obviously, but he has been the weak link on many more snaps this season. 

[To finish this post click Read More]

(more…)

Diminutive QB and Philadelphia Eagle Michael Vick doesn’t think he’s injury prone and isn’t particularly worried about the possibilities of future injuries. He referred to previous injuries as “flukes.”

From Philly.com:

“I don’t think I’m injury-prone at all,” Vick said. “I just had a couple of fluke injuries that happened. But it’s not something I’m worried about.”

[To find out why I think Andy Reid needs to put his foot down click Read More]

(more…)

Bounties may be fairly common, but Gregg Williams' record is proof that they do not necessarily make defenses better. I wonder how much they will be missed.

So much has been written on the New Orleans Saints and Gregg Williams and their apparent bounty system already. It’s crazy how fast the internet pushes out opinions. Typically the same ones: most writers’ columns are either outraged about the bounty system or outraged about the outrage.  Either you’re appalled that this kind of thing goes on or you can’t believe how naive people are to believe that this kind of thing doesn’t go on.

As you know, I’m always a few days late with my thoughts because I hate being redundant and I also like to think about what I think. In this case, I understand both sides of the issue but I’m stuck on one thing that’s more important to me than how folks feel about bounties:

With every passing day it seems that Goodell is moving ahead with his new version of the NFL without waiting for everyone else to catch up.

As players, coaches, and diehard fans, we are not yet ready for Goodell’s kinder, gentler league. In fact, we don’t even know what it would look like in practice. The thought of players approaching the game with any lesser degree of fury just feels like the creation of a sport we want no parts of. And players and coaches are eager to look for ways to keep the sport closer to its roots. That mentality will take time to change.

Especially when the league is insistent upon portraying it as a “culture change” rather than what it is: a revamping of the game itself. And that’s why a Coach like Gregg Williams can run bounty programs across multiple teams over several years without any eyebrows outside of the organizations in question being raised.

If it’s not clear to you yet, please understand that the NFL has NO CHOICE but to re-position the NFL as a game that is violent but not malicious. A game where players say  ”I want to stop the play not stop a career”  which for most of us loyal football watchers is a distinction without much of a difference. Still, I don’t question the need for the NFL to try to create a stronger boundary there. The lawsuits against the NFL by former players and their families are racking up. There are over a dozen lawsuits in play currently and over 300 players involved. The public hasn’t really gotten a grasp of the fact that all of these lawsuits have been running without any decisions handed down. That means the NFL has no idea what the end result will be and the impact that it all will have on this country’s favorite sport.

In the meantime, Commissioner Goodell is scrambling to make the NFL something that it’s never been before. And again I understand the need for change but what I question is the mad dash speed at which its taking place. I think the league might need some sort of “No player or coach left behind” program.

A while back when I wrote about illegal hits in the NFL I think I used an analogy about lunch at work. So I’m going to stick with that analogy but change it a bit. I want to make an important point about official rules vs. unwritten rules.

[To read the rest of this post, click on the "Read More" tab at the bottom]

(more…)