It's been reported that he did re-injure the same disc... And that's highly ignorant of the Dr. to say. Watt's normal activities shouldn't be lumped into what most do. It's not what most do. I'd say it's very difficult for a doctor to understand the stress that a football player's spine goes through over the course of a week. They're forming an opinion based on normal function and doing average activities, for the most part....I'm sure that they also take into consideration that he's a football player and account for it, BUT if you look at others who have had the surgery, most feel they needed more time than what it took Watt, which is usually extra time from when they were cleared. What does that tell you? That, again, doctors don't really know what it's like, so they're still coming up short on their timetables. Maybe Watt is unique and heals like Wolverine..or maybe he sucked up pain and discomfort and compensated well enough to pass the physical..who knows..but why gamble and assume your best player is the former? There was no rush..no playoff push, or playoffs..just Watt's pride and streak on the line. Only the FO and coaches could have objected, but they didn't...and here we are now..
That's a very weak definition...like saying baseball is a contact sport because of runners running into defenders at the bases. Contact sports should really be termed for those sports where you legitimately make hard contact with the opposing team members. Not in instances where you play patty cake with one another.
Do you sense the irony of some random dude on an internet forum making this critique of a doctor they know nothing about?
Not at all.....I don't have to know the doctor to make this critique. Unless the quote was taken put of context, it's not something a doctor should say about the best player in football. Just look at the situation now.. Same disc, which likely means same or similar procedure, but now he's out for the season, with what, 13 weeks left? Why, when they supposedly did everything right and he was back in 8 weeks before? Because he needed more time all along and theyre going to actually use better judgment now..
Late to the "contact sport" discussion, but I'll add my two cents. A coworker once said something along the lines of, "Basketball is a contact sport; football is a collision sport." That summed it up pretty well in my mind.
I'm not a doctor (but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night), but there are also a lot of actual doctors giving their opinions to the media. I do think it's a little silly to take their opinions as the gospel just because they're doctors, when none of them have even met JJ Watt, much less examined him. I did laugh out loud at the last part of your sentence though.
At the least it makes sense now. The commercial was "What's Peyton doing on Sundays now that he's retired?" Didn't make sense that JJ was there, too.
Let's hope it ends up like Jeff Fisher, where he missed the Bears Super bowl season - but the team still got that ring. DD
