January 23, 2008
Chargers Jeopardized Franchises Future As Well As Rivers
By Robbie GilliesThere has been a lot of talk about Philip Rivers recently. Some have talked about his incessant trash-talking on the field, others have focused on his poor performances this season, but most recently people have been mentioning his toughness for playing on a completely torn ACL in the AFC Championship game. I'm not going to talk about Philip Rivers, but instead about the San Diego Chargers completely reckless decision allowing Rivers to play.
Philip Rivers is a football player. All football players want to play no matter how injured they are. The media and often their coaches, have put it in their head that playing injured is heroic. But, there's a difference between playing banged up and playing on a knee that will need surgery in order to continue a career in the NFL.
The Chargers reported the injury as a sprained medial collateral ligament, an injury much less severe than a torn ACL. But, they knew better. They knew he had what all athletes fear, a torn ACL. An injury that, after surgery, takes at the very minimum four months to heal, and usually takes up to a full year before feeling fairly comfortable competing on it. Many have praised the coaching job Norv Turner has done for the Chargers, but the decision to play Rivers should negate all that praise. In response to playing Rivers, Turner had this to say:
My advice to Philip was, 'This is a heck of a football team. We're going to be in this position many times in the future. Don't put yourself in that position. Just do what you need to do.
He wanted to play. I've never been around that mental toughness. I've never been around an attitude like that. Then to go out and play the way he did – it's one for me that's for the books.
This is exactly why players act the way Rivers did. Every player wants to hear praise like this. Every player wants their coach to think they're mentally tough, especially quarterbacks. But, coaches need to be smarter. The call to play rests with the coach not the players. Turner should have never left this decision up to Rivers.
This past off-season the NFL took a lot of heat about players playing with concussions and Commissioner Goodell stepped up and established an independent panel that established rules in regards to concussions. The number one rule that was established was that medical decisions must always override competitive considerations. During last year's Super Bowl press week Goodell said, "I don't think competitive issues should ever override medical issues. So if there's a medical determination that someone should not participate, they should not participate." Now, I don't think the same heat will be on Goodell this year, but it should. How do the doctors, the Chargers organization, and Norv Turner allow Rivers to play with a torn ACL? The Chargers contest they did nothing wrong and abided by the rules for listing injuries. The NFL only requires for teams to list the body part that is injured, so a torn knee ligament simply becomes "knee". Teams often fudge the medical report because as Rivers said, "It would change the way the Patriots played against us." But, obviously, competitive issues did overrule medical issues in this situation and the Chargers should have to pay a price for this negligent decision.
Commissioner Goodell came down hard on the Patriots for taping opponents' coaches when he explicitly outlined that this was against NFL rules. Just like the Chargers, the Patriots contended they did nothing wrong. Belichick said he had misinterpreted the rules and didn't know he was doing anything wrong and the Chargers also feel they were within the confines of the rules about injuries. But, The Patriots have been punished and there is no talk of the Chargers receiving any disciplinary actions. Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 and the Patriots lost a first round draft pick for what many thought didn't even give them a competitive advantage, and definitely did not endanger a young man's career. Shouldn't the Chargers and Norv Turner receive similar punishment for disobeying a direct order from Goodell?
Players will always protest that they are ready to play, no matter how badly they are injured. The NFL has a responsibility to protect these players and punish any organization that puts them in danger. This will probably not be as big of an issue as concussions were last off-season, but it definitely deserves attention, so no more players are put in harms way as Rivers was on Sunday.
