Cleveland Browns return to practice reeling with injuries - NFL
The Cleveland Browns returned to practice on Sunday reeling with injuries to half a dozen players, which reflects on the higher cost of their 19-17 win in the preseason opener against the Detroit Lions on past Friday.
Linebacker Scott Fujita, tight end Jordan Cameron, wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi, tackle Scott Paxson, wide receiver Travis Benjamin and cornerback Dimitri Patterson are on the injured list.
None of the players showed up at training camp and coach Pat Shurmur has expressed complete ignorance about the timeline of their return.
Pat said:
"It's hard to tell when they'll be back. They were nicked up in the game, so we'll see when they can come back."
The severest scare is of WR Mohamed Massaquoi, who is out with a concussion, as confirmed by the coach.
It was the receiver’s first game on return from concussion symptoms he had suffered last season, and the injury reoccurred on the first reception of a throw from Browns’ rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden. He was playing his first game of the pro career.
Unfortunately, Mohamed has been carrying concussion symptoms since being hit by Pittsburgh Steelers’ linebacker James Harrison in 2010. The receiver is struggling to rehab his pro career since then and is yet to attain success.
Pat, meanwhile, has shown to be angry over Mohamed’s choice of using Twitter to speculate about his injury, and also reacted strongly when asked about the circumstances that led to the player’s injury.
The coach said:
“I told you what happened, and that's what happened. He has a concussion, and we're treating it as so. If I tell you something about what happens in a game, that's how it happened."
He added:
“I've encouraged them not to and prefer that they don't, but you can't harness social media. I've learned that. I'm not going to sit here and pick a fight with Twitter. That's part of society today."
Apparently, the coach does not have an option to launch counter-attack on such postings on Twitter or Facebook etc, because he himself does not possess an account on both.
Maybe his frustration was down to the lengthy list of injured players, which is no way a welcome development for him at the time he is struggling to revive hopes of a better future for the team.
The stakes are even higher for the coach given Browns have recently changed ownership hands and are in a phase of uncertainty as far as future of officials and players in Cleveland is concerned.
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