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Injury report: Today's NFL breeds newfangled ailments
01:36 AM CST on Friday, November 4, 2005
Rick Gosselin
Herman Edwards played cornerback in the NFL for 10 years. He never missed a game. He started in the Super Bowl for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1981 and, counting playoff games, finished with a franchise-record 38 interceptions.
Edwards suffered the bumps and bruises, twists and pulls, sprains and strains that accompany the career of any NFL player. But if he could play, he played. Even when, physically, he probably shouldn't have played, he did.
"Our therapy was ice," the New York Jets coach said. "You put ice on everything. Ice it down."
It's no longer that simple.
With off-season conditioning programs, the bodies playing in the NFL are bigger, stronger and faster than they've ever been. Ice isn't the miracle cure it once was, especially with the new vocabulary of injuries that has sprouted.
High ankle sprain. Sports hernia. Lis Franc. Jones fracture.
Whatever happened to the old pulled hamstring?
Cowboys running back Julius Jones has missed the last three games with a high ankle sprain. Baltimore safety Ed Reed has missed the last two games with one. Running backs T.J. Duckett (Atlanta) and Lee Suggs (Cleveland) and receiver Roddy White (Atlanta) also have been sidelined this season with high ankle issues.
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has been around the league for 30 years. He says he has only heard the term "high ankle sprain" in the last 10 years or so.
AP
Donovan McNabb suffers from a sports hernia, one of a bevy of trendy injuries coming into play in today's NFL.
"I didn't know there was one," he said. "It didn't seem like we ever had them before. I guess we must have. It seemed like everybody always had a low ankle sprain, then all of a sudden that [term] caught on like bell-bottomed pants. Then everyone got high ankles."
The high ankle sprain involves the ligaments that connect the two major lower leg bones, the tibia and the fibula. It's caused when the foot rotates one way and the lower leg rotates the other. A low ankle sprain affects the ankle. A high ankle sprain can send pain shooting up into the player's knee.
The sports hernia became a hot topic regarding Eagles Pro Bowl quarterback Donovan McNabb.
McNabb had groin problems during training camp but his "sports hernia" flared in Philadelphia's second game, against San Francisco. He's playing through it, but his mobility has been limited.
A sports hernia is a tear in the muscles of the abdominal floor. It's caused by bending, twisting and turning motions at the waist. Minnesota center Matt Birk has had five surgeries since last winter because of problems related to a sports hernia, and he is spending the season on injured reserve.
Outfielder Magglio Ordonez of the Detroit Tigers missed almost three months of the 2005 baseball season with a sports hernia. The injury also sidelined running back Chris Perry, Cincinnati's first-round draft pick in 2004, for the final 11 games of his rookie season.
The Lis Franc injury is a mid-foot sprain. It was first recognized in equestrians who got thrown from horses with a foot tangled in the stirrup. But there has been an influx of Lis Franc injuries in recent NFL seasons: Duce Staley in 2000, Brian Dawkins in '03 and Courtney Brown and Ty Law in '04.
The Jones fracture is a stress fracture of the foot. There are five long metatarsal bones in the foot, and a Jones fracture occurs in the outermost one. It's a common basketball injury. The foot is planted but the body is moving in that direction. Something has to give, and it's usually the fifth metatarsal. Pro Bowl pass rusher Jevon Kearse suffered a Jones fracture in 2002, Minnesota running back Michael Bennett in '03 and Jets running back Derrick Blaylock this season.
The last word goes to Belichick, whose father, Steve, played for the Detroit Lions in the 1940s and then coached 33 years at Navy.
Belichick came to understand how much the game has changed over the years during a visit by his father to training camp a few summers back. The Belichicks were sitting in his office when the Patriots' trainer informed the coach a player had suffered a dislocated elbow in practice that day.
"I said, 'Well, what does that mean?' " Belichick said. "He said, 'Well, he's probably going to be out eight weeks.' My dad looks at him and says, 'Are you kidding me? Eight weeks? I dislocated an elbow in college and didn't miss a game. I played the whole season with a dislocated elbow. I couldn't bend it, but you played with it. Eight weeks? You've got to be kidding me. For a dislocated elbow?' "
Some things even ice can't cure.
E-mail rgosselin@***BANNED-URL***
http://www.***BANNED-URL***/sharedcontent/dws/spt/football/nfl/stories/110405dnspogoose.1ba6745.html
01:36 AM CST on Friday, November 4, 2005
Rick Gosselin
Herman Edwards played cornerback in the NFL for 10 years. He never missed a game. He started in the Super Bowl for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1981 and, counting playoff games, finished with a franchise-record 38 interceptions.
Edwards suffered the bumps and bruises, twists and pulls, sprains and strains that accompany the career of any NFL player. But if he could play, he played. Even when, physically, he probably shouldn't have played, he did.
"Our therapy was ice," the New York Jets coach said. "You put ice on everything. Ice it down."
It's no longer that simple.
With off-season conditioning programs, the bodies playing in the NFL are bigger, stronger and faster than they've ever been. Ice isn't the miracle cure it once was, especially with the new vocabulary of injuries that has sprouted.
High ankle sprain. Sports hernia. Lis Franc. Jones fracture.
Whatever happened to the old pulled hamstring?
Cowboys running back Julius Jones has missed the last three games with a high ankle sprain. Baltimore safety Ed Reed has missed the last two games with one. Running backs T.J. Duckett (Atlanta) and Lee Suggs (Cleveland) and receiver Roddy White (Atlanta) also have been sidelined this season with high ankle issues.
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has been around the league for 30 years. He says he has only heard the term "high ankle sprain" in the last 10 years or so.
AP
Donovan McNabb suffers from a sports hernia, one of a bevy of trendy injuries coming into play in today's NFL.
"I didn't know there was one," he said. "It didn't seem like we ever had them before. I guess we must have. It seemed like everybody always had a low ankle sprain, then all of a sudden that [term] caught on like bell-bottomed pants. Then everyone got high ankles."
The high ankle sprain involves the ligaments that connect the two major lower leg bones, the tibia and the fibula. It's caused when the foot rotates one way and the lower leg rotates the other. A low ankle sprain affects the ankle. A high ankle sprain can send pain shooting up into the player's knee.
The sports hernia became a hot topic regarding Eagles Pro Bowl quarterback Donovan McNabb.
McNabb had groin problems during training camp but his "sports hernia" flared in Philadelphia's second game, against San Francisco. He's playing through it, but his mobility has been limited.
A sports hernia is a tear in the muscles of the abdominal floor. It's caused by bending, twisting and turning motions at the waist. Minnesota center Matt Birk has had five surgeries since last winter because of problems related to a sports hernia, and he is spending the season on injured reserve.
Outfielder Magglio Ordonez of the Detroit Tigers missed almost three months of the 2005 baseball season with a sports hernia. The injury also sidelined running back Chris Perry, Cincinnati's first-round draft pick in 2004, for the final 11 games of his rookie season.
The Lis Franc injury is a mid-foot sprain. It was first recognized in equestrians who got thrown from horses with a foot tangled in the stirrup. But there has been an influx of Lis Franc injuries in recent NFL seasons: Duce Staley in 2000, Brian Dawkins in '03 and Courtney Brown and Ty Law in '04.
The Jones fracture is a stress fracture of the foot. There are five long metatarsal bones in the foot, and a Jones fracture occurs in the outermost one. It's a common basketball injury. The foot is planted but the body is moving in that direction. Something has to give, and it's usually the fifth metatarsal. Pro Bowl pass rusher Jevon Kearse suffered a Jones fracture in 2002, Minnesota running back Michael Bennett in '03 and Jets running back Derrick Blaylock this season.
The last word goes to Belichick, whose father, Steve, played for the Detroit Lions in the 1940s and then coached 33 years at Navy.
Belichick came to understand how much the game has changed over the years during a visit by his father to training camp a few summers back. The Belichicks were sitting in his office when the Patriots' trainer informed the coach a player had suffered a dislocated elbow in practice that day.
"I said, 'Well, what does that mean?' " Belichick said. "He said, 'Well, he's probably going to be out eight weeks.' My dad looks at him and says, 'Are you kidding me? Eight weeks? I dislocated an elbow in college and didn't miss a game. I played the whole season with a dislocated elbow. I couldn't bend it, but you played with it. Eight weeks? You've got to be kidding me. For a dislocated elbow?' "
Some things even ice can't cure.
E-mail rgosselin@***BANNED-URL***
http://www.***BANNED-URL***/sharedcontent/dws/spt/football/nfl/stories/110405dnspogoose.1ba6745.html
