Nathan Cottrell

Boomergump

Boomergump

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Knee injuries have been happening for the entire period of my fandom. I don't see how it has changed really. Playing surfaces have changed and that has helped, but....

It is still a dangerous sport. I'm not going to do any research on the matter, but I would say knee ligament injury rates have been pretty flat over the years.
 

bke1984

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Frenchise said:
I'm a youngin, so i've gotta ask. How common were ACL tears in the 80s and early 90s? I wonder if these guys have more muscle these days and are putting more strain on their joints.
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They've been around for a while, but there has definitely been a spike in the last 5 years or so. This doesn't necessarily apply to practice, but the emphasis the NFL and NCAA have put on concussions is causing tacklers to go low rather than high. I'm not really prepared to search the internet for the data I've seen on the subject, as I've got better things to do, but I've definitely seen visuals that show the increase in knee injuries over this period.

That point aside, this sucks about Cottrell. I really hope it's just a sprain. Even with a sprain he may be redshirting, but tears are bad. You just never know if the player will be the same after a tear.
 
TampaGT

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A torn ACL is nothing new. I have torn my ACL in both knees. One while play college baseball the other jumping off the bottom rung of the ladder. The 15 yrs between repairs was a huge difference in surgery. In the past it was a career killer and now you come back 100%. I think today's bigger and stronger players actually is what speeds up recovery. With that said really hoping for good news!!!!,
 

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Boomergump said:
Knee injuries have been happening for the entire period of my fandom. I don't see how it has changed really. Playing surfaces have changed and that has helped, but....

It is still a dangerous sport. I'm not going to do any research on the matter, but I would say knee ligament injury rates have been pretty flat over the years.
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I suspect that what has changed is the diagnosis and the reporting of them. A whole lot of those tears, particularly those not immediately debilitating, were seen as serious knee sprains and treated with a few days rest or such, though it might be a year or more before the player was "normal", if then. Now even down to the junior high level there are trainers on the sideline, doctors at the HS and college level, and at that level, x-ray machines in the treatment rooms. All that is for after the fact and as you say, it is still a dangerous game. More mothers are sending their kids into soccer -- where they will bang the ball hard with their heads -- because it is "safer". Might be overall, but I'm not sure about knees and concussions.
 
GTNavyNuke

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:DRates of football injuries - higher rate in preseason than other times of year; and a higher rate in actual competition than practice. (Regular season rates for actual games higher but regular season practices must be much lower.) https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/NCAA_Football_Injury_WEB.pdf

Football Outsiders has something on injuries rates over the years referred to in an NFL article but I can't find it and am going to grill for breakfast .....:D
 
LibertyTurns

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TampaGT said:
I know it was a knee, but not sure if it was an ACL or not. Sorry, I was middle school when it happened and I just don't remember.
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Yes, he injured his knee in spring on 1987. Nothing was going to stop him though. Some people are just like that. Have enough of them on your team and you're going to pull games out you should have lost or never had a real chance to win.
 
LongforDodd

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Knee injuries have been around since "forever" but I think because of the athletes being bigger these days and and playing at a faster, more aggressive pace, the severity of the injuries has increased. Couple that with advances in investigative/diagnostic/remedy techniques, the proliferation of media in reporting these incidents, and the need to get these guys back on the field creates an overall awareness to the level of us guys/gals at home wanting to know more and more. Years ago, "sprains" went generally untreated with a few days on the sidelines but nowadays I believe they would immediately get MRI'd followed up with immediate PT.
 

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Frenchise said:
I'm a youngin, so i've gotta ask. How common were ACL tears in the 80s and early 90s? I wonder if these guys have more muscle these days and are putting more strain on their joints.
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. Back in the late '70's playing in H.S. we always had 2-3 serious knee injuries every year. One teammate got hit during a practice drill with his cleat stuck in the turf......his knee cap ended up on the side of his leg. :eek:. My senior year the injuries dropped off because of the weight training and year round conditioning that the coach implemented
 

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Animal02 said:
. Back in the late '70's playing in H.S. we always had 2-3 serious knee injuries every year. One teammate got hit during a practice drill with his cleat stuck in the turf......his knee cap ended up on the side of his leg. :eek:. My senior year the injuries dropped off because of the weight training and year round conditioning that the coach implemented
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I had a teammate who the year previously had his knee torn up and played the season wearing a brace. About mid-way in an out-of-town game he got twisted on it again and the only solution to his agony was to shoot him full of painkiller and get him back home to the hospital. Unfortunately the dope, while dulling the pain of a wrecked knee, made him almost delirious. So much so in fact that on the bus on the way out, being directed by a local policeman, he began to scream and insult the guy, including words -- a lot of them -- many of our younger players never heard in their lives. While he was screaming the coach was trying to be heard and explain he was out of his mind with painkillers and didn't mean it and ... the cop was ticked but waved us on. In the spring, with a bigger brace, he was playing baseball, but his once fabled speed was gone, not to return. He limps to this day.
 

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You don't have to be hit to get knee injury or worse. Clemson game last year. My knee popped out when setting my foot to lead interference under a punt return. Wasn't touched. Still remember opponent taunting me for being down and not being hit. That was in 1954 I don't recall anything being done to it except crutches and drain water off of it for next two or three weeks. Always played with knee brace after that. kind of like wearing a mouth guard after shearing off half of front tooth from a running backs foot in the mouth.
 
CuseJacket

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Legal Jacket said:
His knee was wrapped and in a brace today. I don't think I saw crutches nearby though.
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Yep, no crutches but a big brace on his right leg. He walked to his chair prior to Fan Day, but I wouldn't read much into that since you can walk with a tear (if that's actually what it is - CPJ said he still did not know the verdict during Media Day).
 

danny daniel

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CuseJacket said:
Yep, no crutches but a big brace on his right leg. He walked to his chair prior to Fan Day, but I wouldn't read much into that since you can walk with a tear (if that's actually what it is - CPJ said he still did not know the verdict during Media Day).
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He told me at Fan Day that there was not a diagnosis as yet (5:00PM).
 
Boomergump

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I hate to look at it this way, but, if a significant injury has to happen to the kid, now is the absolute best time for it. I really really hope surgery is not required. However, if it is, at least this way he has an entire year to rehab and get ready for next year in a normal kind of RS fashion. This is a far better scenario than, say, having it happen in October. In the long run, we might all be thankful to have Nathan around as a RS SR.

Still, you have to feel for the kid getting all fired up for his first season in college, hoping to make an immediate impact. It has to be disheartening. Let's pray that this whole thing is just a big scare, nothing more.
 
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