Tag: injury

Categories
Houston Texans

Passing on Vince Young is no longer the most embarrassing moment in Texans history


It was a sick scene on the field of Reliant Stadium when Dolphins’ quarterback Trent Green collapsed to the field after being kneed in the head by Texans’ defensive tackle Travis Johnson. Watching Green lay motionless for a second consecutive year after a brutal hit was scary, but the nausea was due to Johnson’s behavior following the contact.

Johnson stood over Green’s immobile body and taunted him because he felt that Green had taken a cheap shot for his knees. Truth is, it looks like he did. So, if Green had bounced up, we wouldn’t have seen any problem with Johnson going over and slapping him upside his head. That penalty would have been understandable. Instead, the Texans were hit with a 15-yard flag for classless and disgusting behavior.

Luckily, despite suffering a concussion, Green appears to be okay and he flew home with the team after being checked out at the hospital. Not that any of that seemed to matter to an irate Johnson after the game.

The bottom line is, it was a malicious hit. It was uncalled for,” Johnson said. “He’s like the scarecrow. He wants to get courage while I wasn’t looking, and hit me in my knee instead of trying to hit me in my head. God don’t like ugly, you know what I mean?

“My knee ain’t never hurt like it hurt today,” Johnson said. “If you want to hit me, hit me in my head, hit me in my chest, don’t hit me in my knee. I’m trying to eat just like everybody else. So, to hit me like that, that showed me what type of man he was.

What makes Johnson’s behavior even more revolting is that his own teammate, fellow defensive tackle Cedric Killings broke a vertebra in his neck just two weeks ago. He left the field on a stretcher, just like Green. The Texans should be utterly embarrassed that Johnson is a member of their organization after these outbursts.

Links:

[NYTimes.com]: Green Sustains Concussion as Dolphins Remain Winless

Categories
Golf

Didn’t your mother tell you not to swing that thing indoors?


Marc Warren isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he sure did get sliced up when he decided to practice his golf swing inside of his hotel room. Apparently, he was in some real swanky joint that had a glass chandelier in the room. You see where this going, right?

The Scotsman said he tried a practice swing with a 5-iron in his room Thursday night and hit a glass chandelier which smashed into pieces over him.

Warren was taken to a hospital where he received stitches for a deep cut in his abdomen. He also had minor cuts on his arms and head.

“There was plenty of blood and a towel I held to my stomach was covered when I arrived at the hospital,” Warren said. “But the only thing that hurt was the scratch on my head. I feel fine about playing today.

At least the guy is back in action today in the Seve Trophy tournament. He might be a dumb gamer, but he’s still a gamer.

Links:

[Local10.com]: Fore! Golfer Swing Shatters Chandelier

Categories
NFL General

Don’t worry; you’re not the only person whose fantasy lineup is getting decimated


As if the pathetic performances by most of the NFL’s elite running backs haven’t been disappointing enough for fantasy owners, here we are going into week four and some of the first round, money players are already getting bitten by the injury bug.

The enigmatic artists formerly known as the St. Louis Rams got some distressing news on Monday, but it’s not nearly as painful for them as it is for their star back. Steven Jackson will miss at least one week with a partial tear in his groin that he obtained in Sunday’s loss to the Buccaneers. According to Scott Linehan, Jackson’s status is week to week which is about as bad as it gets for fantasy GMs. We have no experience with torn groins, but we’re guessing that running full speed and cutting on a dime are probably pretty painful. Make room for Jackson at the end of your bench and grab rookie Brian Leonard if you can. This could be the beginning of a long guessing game for Jackson owners.

Then there is Seattle’s best, Shaun Alexander. The Seahawks running back ran for 100 yards on Sunday and then on Monday, Mike Holmgren said that he had a broken left wrist. Good news is that it’s a `play with the pain’ kinda injury and team doctors will just slap a cast on him and send him out on the field. This is defiantly a must monitor situation because we all remember how a fractured foot cost him six games last year.

Throw in other significant happenings in the league like Deuce McAllister‘s injury that will probably keep him out for the remainder of the season, Jake Delhomme‘s strained right elbow, Vernon Davis‘ sprained knee ligament, the Matt Leinart/Kurt Warner merry-go-round, Brian Westbrook‘s abdominal stain, Hines Ward‘s bruised knee, Calvin Johnson‘s bad back, Marc Bulger’s broken ribs
(whew!) and unless you had Kevin Curtis or Ronnie Brown blowing up for your team, you’re probably still bummed out over the fantasy hits you took this week.

Categories
Tampa Bay Lightning

Dan Boyle’s skate gets revenge for the months of thick, cheesy foot odor

Dan Boyle of the Tampa Bay Lightning is going to be out of commission for the next four to six weeks after having surgery on Sunday. You might be thinking that his injury was a broken arm or leg, torn ACL, missing eyeball or something else real `manly.’ Well, the injury was gross and painful in nature, but we’re not too sure how `manly’ it is to slice yourself up with your own skate.

Boyle got hurt in a freak locker room accident Saturday night after the Lightning’s 2-1 preseason loss to Washington. The defenseman was distracted while hanging up his skate. The skate slipped off the hook and hit Boyle in his left wrist, severing three tendons.

Frankly, we’re surprised that this kind of stuff doesn’t happen more often. After all, these guys are flying around on slippery ice with razorblades attached to their feet. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen if you ask us. But you don’t have to take our word for it, Mr. Most Gruesome Sports Injury will inform you all about the inherit dangers associated with hockey.

Links:

[Fox Sports]: Loose skate severs three tendons

Categories
Detroit Lions

Jon Kitna overcomes a concussion and then overcomes the Vikings


The whole world was reminded of the amount of guts it takes to be a big league football player when Kevin Everett possibly lost the ability to walk during a fairly routine tackle. And while that’s one of the scariest examples there is of inherit dangers within the game, one of the quieter dangers of the game involves those hits that leave someone’s bell ringing. Of course, we’re talking about those nasty concussions.

Steve Young knows all about it. Troy Aikman has plenty of experience with `em. And now Jon Kitna has a great ‘tough guy’ story to tell, even though he might get a headache just thinking about it.

Kitna took a nasty shot during the second quarter of a game between Detroit and Minnesota and was sidelined with a concussion until being cleared in the third. Then in the final period, Kitna led the Lions on a game-winning drive. But it wasn’t easy.

I’ve never felt anything like that, and for it to clear up and go right back to as normal as I can be, is nothing short of a miracle,” Kitna said Monday. “I just definitely feel the hand of God. That’s all it was. You can’t explain it.

“I have no headaches, no symptoms, no lingering effects. But that was the worst my head has ever felt, and the worse my memory was in the second quarter. Yet, after halftime there was nothing.”

Kitna said it was the third concussion of his NFL career, and the first since 2001.
After saying he knew who he was during the game, a reporter asked Kitna if he knew where he was.

“Barely,” he said.

Kitna appears to be just fine now, but we all know how quickly the effects of multiple concussions can add up. Just look at what happened to this former NFL QB after taking too many shots to the melon. Poor guy can’t even dress himself properly anymore.

Links:

[FREEP.com]: Kitna on concussion: `I’ve never felt anything like that’

Categories
Portland Trailblazers

Oden ignored his injury and now he can forget about his rookie campaign


Thanks for ruining Christmas, Greg! Yea, that’s right; Greg Oden just ruined our Christmas. Sure, it’s still a few months away, but we were already planning our X-Mas day “Rookie Coming Out Party.” Not like a John Amaechi or Christian Laettner coming out party, but the welcoming of the NBA’s future as Kevin Durant and Oden hooked it up for the first time in the bigs. Well, exploratory surgery became microfracture surgery on Thursday and now we’re gonna be stuck watching A Christmas Story for like the billionth time because Oden is out for the season most likely. Now, we used to love that flick, but over the years, “You’ll shoot your eye out” has mutated into a wishful “Please shoot your eye out.”

Oh, well, we couldn’t possibly feel as awful about this as Oden does right?

Greg looked at me as he was coming out of his surgery, and he and his mom, Zoe, probably said ‘sorry’ 20 times,” Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard said.

“I could feel the weight of the world on his shoulders. And as a leader and as leaders of this organization, my first thought was how lucky we were to have a guy that cares about the organization that much.

Yea, it’s obvious that he really does care about the team. He cares so much, in fact, that he hid his injury from the team and instead of being proactive, he ignored it and threw away his season.

Oden talked about the injury earlier this week in his blog. He said he had a sharp pain about a month ago when he was on vacation.

“I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want to seem like I was complaining or making excuses for anything. Plus, I wasn’t doing anything at the time I realized it hurt, so I figured it couldn’t be anything big,” he said.

We hate to tell you this, but when you’re the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, getting paid millions of dollars from a franchise, getting paid millions of dollars in endorsements and single-handedly took an entire city off the NBA’s suicide watch list then everything is a big deal. Sorry, Greg, but we really hope you get a lump of coal in your stocking this year.

Links:

[Fox Sports]: Oden likely to miss 2007-08 season

Categories
Buffalo Bills

Kevin Everett expected to recover thanks to revolutionary procedure


There’s really nothing to say other than science is simply amazing. After being diagnosed with a “catastrophic” injury to his spinal cord stemming from a hit in Buffalo’s opener against the Broncos, one doctor is now expecting the Bills Kevin Everett to walk again. This is light-years from the outlook just days ago.

After being taken somewhat out of his sedated state on Tuesday, Everett had regained voluntarily movement of his legs and arms. While he’s still not completely out of the woods yet and he has some serious rehabilitation to look forward too, this is the absolute best news anyone could have expected following the second half collision.

Based on our experience, the fact that he’s moving so well, so early after such a catastrophic injury means he will walk again,” said Dr. Barth Green, chairman of the department of neurological surgery at the University of Miami school of medicine.

“It’s totally spectacular, totally unexpected,” Green told The Associated Press by telephone from Miami.

The most amazing part of this story is the revolutionary procedure that was used to help save Everett and could end up helping millions of others in similar, life threatening situations.

Green said the key was the quick action taken by (Dr. Andrew) Cappuccino to run an ice-cold saline solution through Everett’s system that put the player in a hypothermic state. Doctors at the Miami Project have demonstrated in their laboratories that such action significantly decreases the damage to the spinal cord due to swelling and movement.

“We’ve been doing a protocol on humans and having similar experiences for many months now,” Green said. “But this is the first time I’m aware of that the doctor was with the patient when he was injured and the hypothermia was started within minutes of the injury. We know the earlier it’s started, the better.

And just think, all this time we’ve been making fun of Ted Williams’ frozen head.

Links:

[RockyMountainNews.com]: `He will walk again,’ doc say of Bills TE hurt vs. Broncos

Categories
Portland Trailblazers

Trail Blazers can’t catch a break, Greg Oden is going under the knife



Could this improper footwork have
caused the knee injury?

Scary, scary, scary, scary, did we say scary news out of Portland for all you Trail Blazers fans out there. Rookie soon-to-be phenom Greg Oden injured his right knee and is scheduled to undergo exploratory surgery on Thursday. Apparently, Oden has been having some pain in the knee for some time and doctors believe that he may have some cartilage issues.

We’re no doctors, but when you’re the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft and you’re having surgery before you ever play in a regular season game then it can’t be good. With only about a month-and-a-half until the season kicks off, there have got to be some seriously sweaty palms in Portland. After all, with a healthy Kevin Durant right down the road reminding them of what they passed on, a serious injury to the cornerstone of the Blazers would be devastating.

But we shouldn’t be getting all doom and gloom on the situation just yet, after all he recovered just fine from his tonsillectomy earlier in the year. Oh, wait, you don’t need your tonsils to battle for position down in the post against guys like Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan and Marcus Camby. Sorry, Portland, you should be holding you’re breath until the post surgery press conference with team physician Dr. Don Roberts.

Links:

[KGW.com]: Oden to undergo knee surgery
[OregonLive.com]: Oden injures knee

Categories
Buffalo Bills

Kevin Everett’s injury is a sobering reminder of how brutal football really is

Opening weekend of the NFL season is normally a time reserved for loud cheering, beer drinking, barbecue eating and unmatched hope for the upcoming season.  It’s supposed to be a time when fantasy football GMs feel the bitter pain and overwhelming joy of defeat and victory.  It’s supposed to be all those things, but how can it be when the football gods use opening Sunday to send a message that there’s more to life than winning and losing?

The Bills’ Kevin Everett is in ICU at a Buffalo hospital after a fairly routine tackle on the opening kickoff of the second half of the Bills/Broncos game.  Everett sustained a “cervical spine injury” that doctors believe could prevent him from ever walking again.  He’ll be sedated for the next 24-48 hours before doctors can determine more.  

(Brian) Overstreet (Everett’s agent) told the AP late Sunday that his client had some “sparse movement.”

“The next couple of days is going to be critical,” said Overstreet, responding to a question about paralysis. “Our concern is for him to come out of this healthy and, hopefully, be able to walk again.

This certainly makes Sunday’s highlights seem rather trivial and it has to be hard for any professional player to focus solely on the game when reality strikes down like a bolt of lightening.  We’d like to think these guys are superhuman the way they take a lickin’ and so often keep on tickin’, but it’s times like these that you realize why guys like Larry Johnson decide to hold out for more money.  Sure, some of it has to do with market value or simple greed, but these guys really are putting their health on the line each and every snap.  If that doesn’t deserve adequate compensation then nothing does.  

Links:

[AZCentral.com]: Bills’ Everett under sedation

Categories
All Other Sports

Hogan Knows Best? Well, not all of `em

Nick Hogan might want to give up driving, both casually and professionally. We’ve shown you Nick’s poor driving skills before, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that he’s gone off and crashed another car. However, this time it nearly cost him and his passenger their lives.

The 17-year-old Hulkamaniac was apparently driving way to fast down a Clearwater, FL., street Sunday night when he lost control of his yellow Toyota Supra and slammed it into a palm tree in the median. The wreck was so violent that it destroyed the car to the point where both Hogan and his friend, John Graziano, had to be cut from the car by rescue workers. Hogan was the less injured of the two, but both had to be flown to the hospital for treatment. Nick has since been released.

We hope that Graziano pulls through because the last thing any kid needs is the death of a friend of their head. But hopefully this will teach Nick that the world isn’t his own personal drifting course. He might think that he’s a professional driver, but his track record with vehicles shows that he is anything but. Frankly, Hulk should never utter these words to his son again:

Links:

[MyFoxTampaBay.com]: Hulk Hogan’s son injured in car crash