Category: Football Injuries

Brian Westbrook suffers injuries all the time, but he always manages to bounce back. In this case, Westbrook is out with broken ribs, which means he’s probably not going to bounce back that quickly.

The ribs surround your chest cavity, so it’s a critical part of your body. It protects the lungs, but also acts as an anchor for your upper body through the respiratory system.

Westbrook broke two of his ribs in the previous game against the Redskins, but he kept playing. Amazing.

How you break ribs? Trauma. Ribs just usually don’t break on their own, it requires great trauma. While it’s not identified in the press when the break happened, you can be assured it happened either on a direct hit or landing on the ground hard. The ribs are fascinating in that when they break they can cause major pain even if it’s a tiny fracture. You can also break your ribs by coughing. Yes, coughing.

Anquan Boldin is a rising star in the NFL constellation, but he is oft injured. We’ve covered his treatment for knee bone bruise, but now he has an injury that is much worse. He’s fractured his sinus cavity. Honestly, I had no idea you could actually fracture your sinus cavity.

His injury occurred in the Cardinals-Jets game when New York Jets safety Eric Smith nailed Boldin at the end of the game. It was a vicious hit and drew a $50,000 fine from the NFL. You can watch a video here.

The thing you need to understand is that the sinus cavity is actually the paranasal sinuses. They are pockets of open bone space in your face designed to actually prevent trauma to your head. Some think of them like the airbags for your face.

Imagine lifting your arm up and your hand flops to feel your elbow. That’s sorta what happens when you break your foream. Tony Pike is the starting quarterback for the University of Cincinnati, which is unreal. Why? He was the third string quarterback to start the year. Univeristy of Cincinnati has hit a rash of injuries to quarterback, so it was no surprise when Tony Pike broke his forearm.

The first thing you need to understand is that the forearm is actually two bones, the ulna and radius. Tony Pike broke his radius, which is the inside bone running from the elbow to the thumb side.

You gotta feel for Bob Sanders of the Indianapolis Colts. It seems that he goes down for the count in even years. This year he is going down for arthroscopic knee surgery. This raises an interesting question. What exactly happens during arthroscopic knee surgery?

Usually, you find out you need arthroscopic knee surgery after you’ve been injured or your pain level steadily rises through time. The typical causes are:

• Torn meniscus: The meniscus is the body of tissue that acts a shock absorber between your leg bones in the knee joint.
• Rebuilding the ACL: The anterior cruciate ligament basically connects your two leg bones together through the knee joint.
• Diagnostics: Yep, sometimes you undergo the procedure just to take a peek.

The most violent game on planet Earth is football. Men charge full speed into otherrs with little regard for the violent impact nor the consideration of past injuries. It’s amazing more football players aren’t injured throughout the year with something as major as a torn ruptured spleen.

Ask Al Harris or Chris Simms about the prospect of coming back from this injury. Al Harris was diagnosed with a ruptured spleen this week and his prospects of a quick recovery are non-existent. Al Harris injured his spleen during a tackle, while Chris Simms injured his while being tackled.

Congratulations to the Tennessee Titans for making it back into the playoffs. Vince Young, the explosive quarterback, was knocked out of the game when he reinjured his quadriceps. This is a repeat of an injury he suffered earlier this year. Luckily, the Titans has Kerry Collins to come in and wrap up the game.

According to news reports, Vince Young should be able to practice with the team and will play in their playoff game. So what gives? If he was hurt enough to be pulled out of the game, how can he come back and play a week later?

The mouth that is Terrell Ownes is out in the regular season finale with the Washington Redskins with a high ankle sprain. Terrell Owens being does increase the chances the Redskins will mkae the playoffs, but I am sure Terrell will talk about it before the game, during the game and after the game. The sprain isn’t high enough to cover his mouth.

Ok, enough with the hating.

Terrell’s high ankle injury isn’t a laughing matter. 90% of your normal ankle sprains occur when you turn in on your foot. The rest are your high ankle sprains when you turn it outside.

What are the symptoms of a high ankle sprain? Limited movement to the outside of your foot is a good sign in addition to normal ankle sprain symptoms. This includes swelling, tenderness and not being able to fully support your weight.

Nathan Vasher, the exceptional cornerback from the Chicago Bears, has been placed on the injured reserve. This doesn’t really mean anything since the Bears aren’t in the playoffs and only have one game left. Vasher did have a good game against the Vikings a couple of weeks back, but he was held out in last week’s contest against the Packers.

The reason he’s being placed on the IR is due to a nagging groin injury. Think about that. It’s a nagging injury that’s causing him to be shut down for the year. It raises a few questions, as just a couple of weeks ago he was cleared to play.

What’s the best way to become a better quarterback in the NFL? play! Play! PLAY! You need the experience of the game to propel you forward. But, if your name is Alex Smith you’re in trouble. Alex Smith is the third year quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers and he has a separated shoulder.

Alex separated his shoulder in a  game on September 30, 2007 against the Seattle Seahawks. The play was the perfect set up for a shoulder separation. The defensive player landed on him at the right point, and the shoulder separated. It’s a injury that happens most in the sports that feature collisions such as football, hockey and rugby. You’ll also see this injury on sports such as horeback riding (is that really a sport) and motocross. Basically, if you either A) Open yourself to impact by having someone hit you or B) Experience impact through a fall, you stand a good chance of separating your shoulder.

There has to be a joke in here somewhere about how Marvin Lewis tore the tendons in his ankle. Something along the lines of, “Marvin Lewis injured himself while preventing Odell Thurman from driving drunk.” You know, the whole jail Bengals thing.

Alas, it’s not that funny, though you can imagine different scenarios. Lewis is mum, so you have to use your own creative imagination.

One wonders who is going to be the one to put their foot in the ass of Chad Johnson for the next few weeks. Ok, seriously, that was the last one.

What are ankle tendons? Well, the most popular ankle tendon is your achilles tendon, but there are also four other major tendons in the ankle. The tendons in your ankle stabilize your foot and allow flexibility. Without the tendons in your ankle your foot wouldn’t be able to move.