Remember earlier this morning when I wrote about the great Rob Gronkowski problem of 2013? Now that his fourth forearm surgery is officially scheduled for next week, there was optimism that he’ll be fine for your fantasy drafts in August. Even though there’s still significant risk that comes with a Gronk pick, it’s balanced by the far more significant reward.
Yeah, about that.
Last night we were delivered news that feels like good news regarding the fate of Rob Gronkowski’s forearm. It was embraced warmly, because we so desperately need and want the best tight end in the land to be healthy, and to be healthy now.
Make no mistake, friends. This is good news. Maybe, and likely.
When we last checked in with Maurice Jones-Drew in late March, there was reason to feel rosy and generally satisfied with your place in the universe. If you’re either a Jones-Drew owner in a keeper or dynasty league, or a prospective owner hoping to pounce on a running back who’s still nearly the sole driver of his offense, you felt pretty warm and fuzzy when new head coach Gus Bradley said the league’s mightiest mouse will be ready to go.
Now we have more physical proof that he’s progressing, meaning you can again do whatever it is that you do when feeling tremendous glee. Just please, keep your clothes on.
Part of my job as someone who writes about football is doing research. I know, you’re surprised.
That part of my job actually does happen often, despite my attempts to skip it entirely. When I do it upon reading about a player’s injury or potential injury, without fail something also happens: my respect-o-meter for what professional and collegiate football players do takes an abrupt 90 degree spike.
Oh and also, my stomach begins to feel funny.
Sometimes, the celestial bodies align just so. Or maybe it’s true that I’ve been blessed from the heavens above and have an almighty power, which is unfortunate because, as we all know, with great power comes great responsibility.
Mere moments after I posted my latest value mining effort and wrote many kind words about Rob Housler, a troubling Rob Gronkowski item bounced across my computer screen.
For normal 34-year-old folk, surgery of any kind is always sucky. But you and I can generally have that knife inserted into places where knives don’t go multiple times (which is anywhere, I guess), and then easily go back to doing whatever it is we do for money.
For 34-year-old football folk, surgery is always scary and awful too I’m sure, but every ding on the body decreases from their ability to do the thing they do — hit people really hard — effectively and often. When the Texans signed Ed Reed, they were fully aware that the parts which made his whole were well worn, and sometimes rusty.
That’s just a fact of Reed’s existence that they’ll have to live with, and now he’s already set his first Texans milestone without playing in a game yet. He’s had his first surgery as a Texan.
When Robert Griffin III’s knee went pop this past January on a field that resembled the average bomb testing site, the second guessing was immediate. And in the opinion of this guy (me), entirely justified.
