I’m not sure that I want to start a feature where I highlight every time I was correct. That seems like a lot of work, especially given how smart I am and how often I end up being correct. (Totally joking, I’m not that much of a dick.) Believe it or not, I’m not here to point out how insightful I am. It’s more that I’m trying to point out how delusional and/or irresponsible a lot of the current media coverage is. But, if I’m going to follow-up and judge the media on what they say, I need to do the same for myself. I’ve got no problem telling you about the times I was wrong either. I wrote a whole piece about one such instance. There’s just something distasteful about running a series of, “I told you so,” posts. Then again, nobody is going to point it out if I don’t, so fuck it, here goes.
Back on June 25th, I wrote this piece about how Dolphins center Mike Pouncey’s hip surgery was more severe than the media seemed to think. Some reporters slapped an overly-optimistic three month rehab timetable on Pouncey, and they thought he might be ready for week 1. In their defense, they did say might. But, after looking at a few historical comparisons, I said that I didn’t think there was any chance we’d see Pouncey on the field until at least week 7, (an October 19th game) and perhaps not until even later than that.
One month after I posted that story, I read the first mainstream media report that seems to line up with what I was predicting all along. Armando Salguero at the Miami Herald wrote a piece where he quotes, “a source familiar with the center’s surgery and recovery,” (that’s a weird source in case you can’t read between the lines) as saying that Pouncey will probably miss about four months post-surgery, rather than the previously reported three months. If that’s the case, that would put Pouncey’s return around late October, perhaps a week 8 game.
I’ll keep tabs and update this when we have a final start date or better view of how things progress, but, for right now, even despite the dubious source, I’m ready to throw this one in my win column. Then again, Mike Pouncey is enough of a douche that maybe he’ll hurry back and take this one away from me.
Update, October 12, 2014: Pouncey was back in the starting lineup today for the Week 6 game. I’m not sure exactly how to call this one. On the one hand, I said that people were being optimistic in their assessment that Pouncey would be back for Week 1. In that sense, I was way right. I even said that Week 7 was the earliest I could see him back, and while that was not exactly correct, it was pretty damn close. Before I throw myself a parade though, I should point out that I thought Week 7 was the absolute earliest that Pouncey would be back, and that it was likely that he’d start the season on the PUP (physically unable to perform) list. The truth ended up falling somewhere in between, but I’d like to think it was much closer to my side. Your call.
