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Let's act for a moment like we actually know that it's the latter--that "wear and tear" just literally means wearing down over time. If we assume that, can you name me any another examples of a player for whom the cumulative effects of overuse and so on had a direct effect on them in the first game of a season? To the point where they experience debilitating pain and inflammation?
Steven Jackson, 2011. First play of the year injured his quad.
That's an injury. Which happens to players whether they have worn down or not. And I didn't ask, name players who have been injured in week 1. I didn't ask that because it doesn't fit the situation.
What happened to TG in week 1 was not an injury, which is why it was not reported as one. It's something else. That distinction is important. It does no good to overlook it. (At least in part because in fact we don't want to assume the Rams would fail to report an actual injury)
So--yes all players at all times, whether they have been worn down by years of play or not, can at any time get an injury--a tear, a partial tear, a break, a deep bruise, a pull. Something traumatic, which has to be reported to the league, according to the rules. No one would ever dispute the idea that a player can get INJURED at any time, for any number of reasons.,
That is not what happened to Gurley in either week 1 or in December. What we DO know is that in 2018, he had pain and inflammation in a surgical knee...twice. (McVay, Dec. 27th: something in the Eagles game "made it swell up" and "It was a similar situation earlier in the year after we played Oakland as well." )
There are any number of underlying conditions which could cause pain and inflammation in a surgical knee (twice) and which would also calm down enough to let him play (as he did early in the season and then after the December layoff). And at this point we're in the dark. What would cause a surgical knee to swell up and also become incredibly painful (which is how TG described the Sept. incident). Many many things, including deterioration of the knee, and other underlying conditions. We do know however that no matter what the underlying direct cause is, it won't go away---which is probably why they talk about managing his touches and maybe even why they traded up to get a dynamic third back (though there are also other reasons for that too.)
So we know it's not an injury, we know it happened twice---according to them that is--we know we don't know what it is, and we know there is probably some degree of likelihood it can happen again, and we ALSO know that guys with worse knee conditions than Gurley apparently has can still play (as both Faulk and Holt did toward the end even though they were both reduced to bone on bone knees and injecting lubricants). So that would strongly suggest that Gurley can still play (until it happens again, but that was the same with Faulk at one point).
Anyway. Jackson getting injured is not the same thing and not what I was asking about.
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Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2019 07:41AM by zn.
