RG3′s knee surgeon: Griffin is ‘superhuman’ in recovery

By Doug Farrar | Shutdown Corner – Sat, Mar 23, 2013

 

Dr. James Andrews and Robert Griffin III leave the field in the fourth quarter in the Redskins' Jan. 6 playoff …

 

 

 

Reigning NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Robert Griffin III is still recovering from a couple fairly serious knee injuries -- the PCL sprain he suffered in Week 14 of the 2012 season against the Baltimore Ravens, and the ACL and PCL tears he had in a wild-card playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan was widely criticized for playing Griffin against the Seahawks when his quarterback was obviously physically failing near the end of the game, but if the recent testimony of renowned surgeon Dr. James Andrews is any indication, Shanahan may be off the hook -- and with a truly healthy starting quarteback sooner than later.

 

"I've been real mum on talking too much about RG 3," Andrews recently told ESPN while working on a feature about South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore, who is also under Andrews' care. "He wants his recovery to be fairly private, but I can tell you he's way ahead of schedule. His recovery has been unbelievable so far. RG3 is one those superhumans. First patient I ever had like that was Bo Jackson. And recently I, of course, had Adrian Peterson, who is also superhuman. They have an unbelievable ability to recover, where as a normal human being may not be able to recover."

Peterson, of course, won the NFL Most Valuable Player award after rushing for 2,097 yards in the regular season, and another 99 against the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs, less than a year after his own major knee surgery. His recovery is now seen as an encouraging test case for every player trying to get back in the game after such injuries (like Lattimore), but as Andrews said, athletes like Adrian Peterson and Robert Griffin III aren't your average human beings.

Andrews wasn't always so positive about the process, insisting that Shanahan was not telling the truth about Shanahan's assertion that Andrews gave Griffin a clean bill of health to return to the Ravens game after he was first hurt.

"He's on the sidelines with Dr. Andrews," Shanahan said the day after the Ravens game. "He had a chance to look at him and he said he could go back in [I said] 'Hey, Dr. Andrews, can Robert go back in?'
'Yeah, he can go back in.'
'Robert, go back in.'
"That was it," Shanahan said.
That's not how Andrews saw it at all.
"[Griffin] didn't even let us look at him," Andrews said. "He came off the field, walked through the sidelines, circled back through the players, and took off back to the field. It wasn't our opinion. We didn't even get to touch him or talk to him. Scared the hell out of me."
 

At last week's owners meetings, Shanahan reflected on the process, and on Griffin's recovery.

"It's part of the evaluation of people: When people say they're ready to go and maybe they're not, do you keep that in the back of your head? Sure."

In the end, it's all about when Griffin can get back on the field. An opening day prognosis is optimistic to say the least, but five or ten years ago, it might be impossible. It helps, of course, that Griffin is working right hours a day to get back on course.

"I've never seen a guy work that hard in his rehab," Shanahan said. "He's got great strength, he's got great flexibility. And that hopefully gives him a chance to be ready for the season.

"The doctors feel great about where he's at."

Well, one doctor certainly does. And when it comes to knees, Dr. Andrews is the man whose opinion matters.

 

NFL passes helmet rule, ends tuck rule

By BARRY WILNER (AP Pro Football Writer) | The Associated Press 

  

• NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell walks out after the morning session at the annual NFL football meetings at the Arizona Biltmore, Tuesday, March 19, 2013, …
  
  
  
• Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney walks out after a morning session at the annual NFL football meetings at the Arizona Biltmore, Tuesday, March 19, …
  
  

PHOENIX (AP) -- NFL owners passed a player safety rule Wednesday barring ball carriers from using the crown of their helmets to make forcible contact with a defender in the open field.

Several coaches and team executives expressed concern about officiating the new rule, but Commissioner Roger Goodell championed it and it passed Wednesday as the owners meetings concluded.
Its passage by a 31-1 vote - Cincinnati voted no - was the second significant step in protecting defensive players; on Tuesday, the league took the peel-back block out of the game.
''There was a lot of discussion,'' Steelers President Art Rooney said of the helmet crown rule, ''but the way it was presented was the most effective way to address it.''
The tuck rule, one of the most criticized rules in pro football, was eliminated. Now, if a quarterback loses control of the ball before he has fully protected it after opting not to throw, it is a fumble.
Rooney said the Steelers were the only team to vote against getting rid of the tuck rule. New England and Washington abstained.
''We didn't think it was necessary to make that change,'' Rooney said. ''We were happy with the way it's been called.''
Video review now will be allowed on plays when a coach challenges even though he is not allowed to. But the coach will be penalized or lose a timeout, depending on when he threw the challenge flag.
That change stems from Houston's Thanksgiving victory over Detroit in which Lions coach Jim Schwartz challenged a touchdown run by the Texans' Justin Forsett. Although officials clearly missed Forsett being down by contact before breaking free on the 81-yard run, when Schwartz threw the red flag on a scoring play that automatically is reviewed, the referee could not go to replay.
That loophole has been eliminated.
Goodell was eager to get approved the competition committee's proposal to outlaw use of the crown of the helmet by ball carriers, and there was talk the vote would be tabled until May if the rule change didn't have enough support.
But after watching videos of the play that clearly showed the differences in legal and illegal moves by ball carriers, the owners voted yes -and then applauded the decision, something Rams coach Jeff Fisher said is ''rare.''
''We had discussions with the players association and the players themselves, the coaches' subcommittee,'' said Fisher, co-chairman of the competition committee. ''A lot of people talked to us about this rule and how to roll it out in our game.''
The penalty will be 15 yards from the spot of the foul, and if both the offensive and defensive player lowers his head and uses the crown of the helmet to make contact, each will be penalized.
''It'll certainly make our runners aware of what we expect relative to use of the helmet,'' Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. ''One of the questions I ask a lot is who gains from this, offense or defense? And it's a toss-up as to which side of the ball has the advantage on this rule, if any. The main thing is it's pro-health and safety, and that's the big thing.''
The owners discussed simply using fines on ball carriers to eliminate the tactic, but instead voted to make the rule change.
''Jim Brown never lowered his head,'' Rooney said with a smile. ''It can be done.''

Former Okla QB Steve Davis dead at 60

By JEFF LATZKE (AP College Football Writer) | The Associated Press – 1 hour 44 minutes ago

  

• In this Aug. 20, 1973 file photo, University of Oklahoma quarterback Steven Davis is photographed at the teams media day in Norman, Okla. A University …
  
  
• FILE - In this Jan. 2, 1976 file photo, University of Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer, right, and quarterback Steven Davis, give the "number one" …
  
  

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- As a child, Steve Davis dreamed of playing for Oklahoma and even tucked away a picture of the Sooners' quarterback he idolized in his dresser drawer.

Decades later, he is among the standard-bearers for the position at one of college football's most storied programs. Davis, who started every game during Barry Switzer's first three seasons as head coach and won national championships in 1974 and 1975, died Sunday in a plane crash in South Bend, Ind. He was 60.
Davis compiled a remarkable 32-1-1 record as the Sooners' starter from 1973 to 1975. The Sooners went 11-0 in 1974, then won the national title again the following year after going 11-1.
It was a storybook career for Davis, who finished with one of the best records for a starting quarterback in the sport's history after a humble beginning at Oklahoma. He grew up in Sallisaw in the eastern part of the state and developed a love for the Sooners. In an interview with The Oklahoman newspaper last year, he described how he hid a picture from an Oklahoma football brochure in his top dresser drawer.
''It was a shot into the huddle, and there was Bobby Warmack, who was my idol. He had that eye-black, and the double chin strap and the towel out of the front of his pants,'' Davis told the paper. ''I took that picture, and I took a big, black magic marker and wrote ''WHEN?''
The day Davis made his first start in the 1973 season opener, he said, his mother took the picture and wrote on it: ''TONIGHT.''
Oklahoma beat Baylor in the opener, then tied powerhouse Southern Cal - with Lynn Swann and Pat Haden - in the second game.
After that, Davis and the Sooners ran off 28 straight victories.
''I will never get away from the fact that I was an Oklahoma quarterback. I will never get away from the fact that I only lost one game,'' Davis said in the 2008 book ''The Die-Hard Fan's Guide to Sooner Football.'' ''All of those things are a part of my legacy and my history. I am very thankful for what happened. I don't know that I would trade my career for any other quarterback that has ever played at OU.''
A product of a different era, Davis hardly had to throw a pass to be the star quarterback in Oklahoma's dominant wishbone offense. He completed just 40 percent of his passes during his career for 2,034 yards, but only attempted about six passes per game during Oklahoma's back-to-back championship seasons.
With silver-shoed All-American Joe Washington carrying the ball, the Sooners rushed 813 times in 1974 - averaging an NCAA record 73.9 attempts per game - and amassing 438.8 yards on the ground. Davis' school records for consecutive starts (34) and career victories (32) were surpassed only last season by Landry Jones, who started every game the past three seasons plus most of 2009 while replacing injured Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford.
In the process, Davis reached out to Jones, who had been criticized after an early season loss to Kansas State by writing him a letter; Davis had been booed during the only loss of his career, a 23-3 setback to Kansas in 1975. Jones would go on to break Davis' career record for wins by beating Texas, also joining Davis, Jimmy Harris and Jamelle Holieway as the only Sooners' quarterbacks to go 3-0 in Red River Rivalry starts.
''He just really wanted to encourage me,'' Jones said. ''Just keep going, keep leading those guys and keep fighting, regardless of what happens in the next game or the last game. Your focus is on this game and always to lead those guys.''
Davis said his parents were from Sallisaw, though he was born at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, La., where his father was stationed. He received the very last available scholarship to play at Oklahoma - only after another player had decided to play at Colorado instead, according to the 2012 book ''I Love Oklahoma/I Hate Texas.''
''They had a lot of scholarships and they recruited eight quarterbacks to try to find somebody that could imitate Jack Mildren, and I was one of those eight,'' Davis recalled in the ''Fan's Guide'' interview. ''I was the bottom of the eight but I was one of those eight, and through early fall drills I started out as number eight quarterback.''
Davis described how he considered leaving Oklahoma before the 1973 season, but instead dedicated himself to competing and ended up landing the starter's job after Kerry Jackson was suspended and the Sooners were put on probation.
It would end up being among the greatest tenures for a starting quarterback in Oklahoma history, along with Harris' performance during the NCAA record run of 47 consecutive victories.
''That's what you live for,'' Davis said in the ''Fan's Guide'' interview. ''I never felt nervous or anxious. I mean, I just couldn't wait to get out there and go play, go match up, go see who's better. I never got tight. I was an excitable player, but I think I played within myself, and just knowing I was going to go compete in front of 70,000 or 80,000 people and go find out who's best - it was great.''

Chiefs to get Alex Smith, cut Cassel

espn.com
 

The San Francisco 49ers have agreed to trade quarterback Alex Smith to the Kansas City Chiefs, a league source confirmed to ESPN.com's John Clayton.

The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Adnan Virk and Danny Kanell react to the report that the 49ers have traded Alex Smith to the Chiefs.

Kansas City will trade its second-round pick in the 2013 draft -- the second selection (No. 34 overall) in the round -- as well as another conditional mid-round pick in 2014 to acquire Smith from San Francisco, a league source told ESPN.
As a result of the trade, the Chiefs are expected to release former starting quarterback Matt Cassel, league sources told ESPN.

At this point, Smith will play under terms of his remaining contract, which calls for a guaranteed base salary of $8.5 million in 2013. There has been no discussions between the Chiefs and Smith's representatives about negotiating a new contract.
The trade can't be officially completed until March 12 when the 2013 league year begins.

The trade agreement was first reported by Fox Sports.
Smith, the 2005 No. 1 overall draft pick, lost his starting job to Colin Kaepernick while sitting out with a concussion but was professional at every turn and continued to mentor his replacement.
Before his injury, Smith had completed 26 of his last 28 passes -- including going 18-of-19 for 232 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions in a "Monday Night Football" win at Arizona on Oct. 29.
He then sustained a concussion in the second quarter of the 49ers' next game, a 24-24 tie against St. Louis on Nov. 11. Smith sat out the next game as Kaepernick dazzled in his debut as an NFL starter, beating the Bears handily at home on "Monday Night Football." Smith didn't start again last season.
The 28-year-old quarterback has thrown for 14,280 yards with 81 touchdowns and 63 interceptions in 80 career games.
The Chiefs hired coach Andy Reid as their new coach this offseason after a 2-14 season that earned Kansas City the No. 1 overall pick but led to the dismissals of coach Romeo Crennel and general manager Scott Pioli.

Eight in the Box: Must-keep free agents

By Pat Yasinskas | ESPN.com



Welcome to "Eight in the Box," a new NFL Nation feature that will appear each Friday during the offseason. This week's topic: Which free agent is essential for each team to keep from its 2012 roster?

Atlanta Falcons: Left tackle Sam Baker. Keeping safety William Moore and cornerback Brent Grimes also is important. But keeping Baker is the priority because he protects the blind side for quarterback Matt Ryan. Baker stayed healthy and had his best season in 2012. Baker may never be an All-Pro, but the Falcons aren’t in position to get a better left tackle in free agency or the draft.

Carolina Panthers: Defensive tackle Dwan Edwards. The Panthers really don’t have much in the line of potential unrestricted free agents, although they’ll have to release some veterans just to get under the salary cap. But Edwards is the one potential free agent they should keep. He's 31, but Edwards can give the Panthers another solid year or two.

New Orleans Saints: Center Brian De La Puente. Left tackle Jermon Bushrod might seem like a bigger priority, but think about how the Saints structure their offensive line. In their system, the inside is more important than the outside. Bushrod is likely to get big money on the open market and the Saints might not have the cap space to keep him. De La Puente isn’t likely to cost much and he'll keep the middle of the line strong.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Defensive end Michael Bennett. He produced nine sacks in a season in which fellow starter Adrian Clayborn went down with an injury. Keep Bennett, Clayborn and Da'Quan Bowers together and Tampa Bay can have a nice rotation of defensive ends for the next several years.