A Football Injury Is A Good Thing?

I was listening to ESPN talk radio this week and Merril Hoge (former NFL fullback) was on the show and talking about Tom Brady coming back from his knee injury.  And then he made an interesting observation that I’m not sure I agree with, but it made for some interesting debate. He said that based on his experience in the NFL, that the constant pounding that the body took definitely had a big impact over the years, especially players like running backs and quarterbacks.  Then he said that the injury may have been the best thing to ever happen to Brady.  Your reaction probably was like mine. “What are you talking about?” I thought to myself.  Read on to see…

What Hoge was saying was that a year off from the physical pounding at this point in Tom’s career may help him to come back strong and  refreshed and may actually extend his playing career. Now I have to suspend disbelief a little here because Tom’s injury was to the knee.  And for a quarterback that can really mess with their mind.

Initally this year, everytime Tom fades back into the pocket, I have to believe that he is thinking about all those large bodies flying around.  So I have to take that out of the equation to even think about what Merril really said.

I’m not sure I agree with it, but I think that I may be even more worried that a lot of players heard it and buy into it. I mean can you imagine if now quarterbacks, and maybe even running backs, start to negotiate an off year in their contracts to give them a better chance of a longer career playing football in the NFL.

Won’t happen you say? Well did you ever think you would see two players refuse to play for the team that drafted them in your lifetime?  Did you ever think that steroids would be as rampant as it is in Major League Baseball? Did you ever think you would see a professional football player convicted for what Michael Vick went to prison for?  I’ll admit that I didn’t think those things would happen until they did.

I guess in the end only time will tell.  I tend to disagree with Merril, because I think that the type of injury that would keep a player out for an entire season would tend to do more to potentially shorten their career than to lengthen it.  Just my humble opinion.