This Murray matter is all a smokescreen. The Boys have absolutely no desperate need for a LB, unless they know that LVE's neck has gone the road of another #1 pick LB Billy Cannon, JR in 1984.
He was a gifted linebacker who was selected in the first round of 1984 draft by the Dallas Cowboys, 25th overall, two spots before the Commanders had planned to make him their top pick. he had played some safety in college as well.
However, Cannon suffered a spinal injury while tackling New Orleans Saints running back Wayne Wilson Oct. 21 at Texas Stadium.
Everything happened real fast,” he went on. “When I looked up from the turf, I saw all those faces. (Cornerback) Everson Walls was leaning forward trying to wake me up. He told me later that my eyelids were jumping up and down.”
Cannon is now well enough to lift weights and to play racquetball. However, team doctors say that because of damage to two vertebrae in the neck region and because Cannon also suffers from a narrowing at the top of his spinal column, a congenital defect, he might risk a more severe injury, such as paralysis, if he plays again.
This fact was so cold and hard that the decision to quit football was easy for Cannon.
“I remember falling to the turf. I couldn’t feel anything. Not a thing. Everything went numb,” Cannon said.
Cowboys doctors would not pass him in a physical, despite the fact he had regained so much strength in his 6-foot-4, 231-pound frame.
Cannon alternated playing time at right outside linebacker with Anthony Dickerson last season. He was expected to start this season. “It almost seems like I never played with the Cowboys,” Cannon said.