TrailBlazer
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Tony Romo played with two transverse process fractures in his back and has required pain-killing injections or pills to work through that and torn rib cartilage. Jason Witten played the 2012 season opener with a partially torn spleen. Dez Bryant passed on season-ending surgery for a broken finger late in 2012. Two games later, he caught nine passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns. Orlando Scandrick played with a finger so shattered that reconstructive surgery did not fix it.
“It’s stuck,” Scandrick said. “It never got back. I mean it was just something [that] over time I learned how to deal with it.”
Other Cowboys have played through injuries not even known or talked about. They will wait until after the season to have surgeries on shoulders or knees that are cranky but not so bad – in their minds, anyway – to knock them out of a game.
Why do they do what they do? What is the pull of the game? What is it about that rush from that opening kick that keeps them doing what they do?
“I mean, your focus is so on the short term and now the adrenaline that goes along with it,” Witten said. “I’m the player rep, so I've got to be careful with what I say, but, yeah, this is awesome man, to be in this opportunity and a lot of us waited a long time to get here. 'Whatever it takes' is a good mindset to have. It’s just you put all this work to get to this moment in December to be in the hunt and here you are. I think you want to give yourself every chance to play.”
Romo missed just one game with his back fractures. Standing at a podium after practice in London last month, he talked about why he wanted to play so badly.
“I’m a football player; this is what I do for my life's work,” Romo said then. “It's important to me. I care about playing and competing and helping this football team win … You're only afforded so many opportunities at that, so you want to take advantage of that when you have that opportunity. If you love the game, you'll always try and get on the field.”
“My job is on the line every day,” Scandrick said. “The job of the scouts and people around here is to find someone better than me, that’s cheaper than me.”
"...There’s a sign out there" Witten said "that says it’s a privilege, not a right, to play and coach for the Dallas Cowboys. I think that’s the way kinda this team has gone about it since April, when nobody thought we could do anything.”
http://m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/blogpost?blogname=dallas-cowboys&id=4738468
“It’s stuck,” Scandrick said. “It never got back. I mean it was just something [that] over time I learned how to deal with it.”
Other Cowboys have played through injuries not even known or talked about. They will wait until after the season to have surgeries on shoulders or knees that are cranky but not so bad – in their minds, anyway – to knock them out of a game.
Why do they do what they do? What is the pull of the game? What is it about that rush from that opening kick that keeps them doing what they do?
“I mean, your focus is so on the short term and now the adrenaline that goes along with it,” Witten said. “I’m the player rep, so I've got to be careful with what I say, but, yeah, this is awesome man, to be in this opportunity and a lot of us waited a long time to get here. 'Whatever it takes' is a good mindset to have. It’s just you put all this work to get to this moment in December to be in the hunt and here you are. I think you want to give yourself every chance to play.”
Romo missed just one game with his back fractures. Standing at a podium after practice in London last month, he talked about why he wanted to play so badly.
“I’m a football player; this is what I do for my life's work,” Romo said then. “It's important to me. I care about playing and competing and helping this football team win … You're only afforded so many opportunities at that, so you want to take advantage of that when you have that opportunity. If you love the game, you'll always try and get on the field.”
“My job is on the line every day,” Scandrick said. “The job of the scouts and people around here is to find someone better than me, that’s cheaper than me.”
"...There’s a sign out there" Witten said "that says it’s a privilege, not a right, to play and coach for the Dallas Cowboys. I think that’s the way kinda this team has gone about it since April, when nobody thought we could do anything.”
http://m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/blogpost?blogname=dallas-cowboys&id=4738468
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