07-01-2019, 12:18 AM
(06-29-2019, 08:46 AM)OSUfan Wrote: Please provide the data to back your claim that Williams had a pre-existing shoulder injury....oh and make it data other than the article of complete speculation from the San Diego Tribune. I just want to make sure we are completely clear on what you are suggesting..
1) He had a shoulder injury which required surgery that he completely hid from the Alabama staff and was able to play in every game in his three years there.
2) He was also able to hide this shoulder injury which required surgery from the medical team which administers physicals at the NFL combine.
So above are the claims that you are making..would you argree?
Since you're assuming the role of forum police and patting yourself on the back in multiple posts (which is hilariously sad, lol), I'll take a crack at this.
1. Maybe the shoulder injury wasn't catastrophic at Alabama. Maybe the tear wasn't complete or severe. There could have been damage that didn't prevent him from playing at a reasonably high level. Are you going to say that football players at high levels of the game don't play though injuries every single week? Do you think that every injury that players sustain is disclosed to fans? If he had the beginnings of an issue that he could play through and address at the end of the year, then why wouldn't he?
2. What if he didn't hide it from the Alabama medical staff? Maybe they knew and didn't disclose it to the public. Teams don't have to do that. The Bengals sure as hell didn't disclose what his injury was when it occurred. It took weeks and most of us believed it was a small issue due to the "dinged up" description in the headline. They haven't told us how or when it happened, they don't really have to, and they most likely never will.
We're talking about the left tackle for arguably the best team in college football over the last decade. He was expected to be a high first round pick before the season started, and his team was in the hunt and perhaps favored to win a national title. I'd call that a key player on a team with a lot on the line. You don't think that there's a chance that if he could play through an injury, that perhaps he would want to or be encouraged to?
Add to this the fact that he stood to make millions if he came into the last weekend of April perceived as 100% healthy, and you have a guy with all the reasons in the world to hide an injury and put off fixing it until, you know, he made himself financially secure for the rest of his life.
As for team examinations, let's not pretend this team hasn't been lacking in this department in the past (Bryant). If other teams tested him and found something fishy, then why would they share that info with other teams that might potentially blow a high first rounder on him? Maybe the Bengals staff missed it, or it wasn't as apparent as it was when he did whatever he did in camp (or who knows where else) to it.
I'm not saying that he did this or that it was preexisting. I just wouldn't be all that surprised to find out that a player with that much to gain on a team with everything on the line would hide something like that. I also wouldn't be shocked at all to find out that the Bengals brass didn't do their due diligence on a player before drafting him. I don't think that you're implication that nothing could possibly get past them is valid. it's happened before.
Is it likely? No. I hope like hell it didn't go down that way. Still, I'm not going to knock fans that have a few questions when a player has a season-ending injury in no-pad camp out of the blue. I'm not the forum police. That's your job to decide what people should or shouldn't talk about, right? Data? LOL. I didn't realize that we needed a flow chart and power point presentation to converse on a football forum. I'll give you some data: The dude that wrote the article for the Union Tribune is an actual medical doctor that has been in the employ of an actual NFL team. He's seen the evaluation process and been to the combine (probably several) in a professional capacity.
Where'd you get your medical degree to get your data, doctor? You ask for data when all you have is snark and pissy attitude. How many NFL teams have you worked for in any capacity other than unofficial forum police? LOL. How many NFL executives and owners have offered you a salary for your professional opinion? I'd say Dr Chao's (the author) carries significantly more weight than yours by a long shot.
