Injuries mar NFL quarterbacks - Part One
Each play in the NFL is fundamentally a concert of forceful collisions. It’s not really a question of if a football player would be injured but rather when he would be and how serious that injury would be? The league has placed in effect a plethora of rules
to make the game safer for players but then they can only do so much. Although, every player is at a risk of injury but the quarterback might as well have a bulls-eye painted on his jersey. The prime directive of the defence is to give the quarterbacks a tough
time. That usually means breaking through the offensive line and taking down the quarterback .... violently.
Over the 7 weeks, quite a few quarterbacks have been injured. The following is a recap of the injuries quarterbacks have had over the season starting off with Tony Romo.
Tony Romo
Dallas started the season with playoff aspirations but those dreams were definitively crushed when their quarterback, Tony Romo broke his collar bone. The Cowboys stand at 1-5-0 and fourth place in the NFC East. Even with their pro-bowl quarterback they
were, to put it nicely, doing poorly.
Without him their run is over. Romo doesn’t require surgery but he would miss a minimum of 6 to 8 weeks, if not longer. It's likely that he wouldn’t be asked back on the field after his recovery and instead rest until 2011.
Brett Favre
The Vikings' quarterback, Brett Favre has been a bastion of physical fitness throughout his career. He hasn’t missed a single game in his career. He has consecutively started 291 games but that phenomenal run might be coming to an end now.
The 41 year old has two minor fractures in his left ankle though it is not certain if he would sit out the coming game or not. He has a stress fracture in the ankle and an avulsion fraction in the heel bone.
Favre could play with medication for the pain but Vikings' coach, Brad Childress might not like the idea. He was highly critical of Favre’s performance against the Green Bay Packers. How much of that dismal performance should be attributed to the ankle problems,
no one knows but Favre can really say but Childress wants to use the ankle to put him on the bench.
“His competitive nature, I'm sure, will come into it,” Childress said regarding Favre’s return. “But a lot of times you've got to protect people from themselves.”
If Favre is ‘protected from himself’, Travaris Jackson would start for Minnesota. For as long as Favre has been with the Vikings, Jackson has had no opportunity to start for the team. Questions were raised if Jackson was indeed able to replace the ailing
quarterback after having been on the bench for as long as he has.
Jackson insists that he can. “I feel like I've improved a lot in the last year-and-a-half watching Brett,” Jackson said. “I feel like I've like I've come a long way, probably the farthest I've come from year to year, even though I didn't play a whole lot.”
Vince Young
When Jacksonville Jaguars clashed with Tennessee Titans, both starting quarterbacks were forced out of that game due to injuries. In the first quarter, Titan’s quarterback, Vince Young fumbled the ball. The offense and the defence began to pile up on Young
and in the mess, his leg twisted underneath him and he was forced to leave the field.
Although, it wasn’t serious, Young missed Tennessee’s next game against Philadelphia as backup, Kerry Collins stood in for him.
David Garrard
The Jaguars lost their quarterback half way into the second quarter of the match against Tennesee. David Garrard suffered a concussion and left the field to backup, Trent Edwards. Jaguars suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Titans and lost again
to Kansas City in the next week.
Garrard didn’t feel the effects until a day after. His vision was unclear and he was quite sensitive to noise and light. Garrard has had time to recover and is expected to start for Jacksonville this Sunday when they go to Dallas.
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