Okay, it’s sounding like there’s at least a slight whiff of a chance that I’m wrong. I’ve been wrong before. Hell, I even wrote a piece about being wrong, so it’s not like I’m afraid to admit when I’m wrong. Yesterday, and again this morning, I speculated that Robert Griffin III was most likely done for the season after dislocating his ankle in Sunday’s game. I pointed out that ankle dislocations usually come with other severe damage, and that, in the few times I can find, it ends the player’s season.
Today, news came out that RG3 did not sustain any fractures with his injury. That’s obviously good news. But before we get too rosy about everything, it should be noted that he’s not out of the woods yet. About the same time I was writing my doom-and-gloom piece last night, a team at the Washington Post published an outstanding in-depth analysis of the injury. Seriously, read that if you’re at all interested in the issue… it’s one of the most informative injury coverage pieces I’ve read, and all NFL coverage would be better if people approached injuries the way that piece did.
There are a few things that I took from that article that don’t make me regret my season-ending prediction for RG3, even despite this latest news. First of all, the doctors in that article make it abundantly clear that really, just about nobody simply dislocates an ankle. It’s one of those injuries that really, almost 100% of the time, comes with more extensive damage, usually a fracture. I said that too, but I don’t have the degree to back it up, so I don’t blame you if you didn’t believe me.
But, even with this news that there is no fracture, there’s still plenty left to fixate on if you want to be pessimistic (as I’ve been accused of). RG3 could still have extensive ligament damage, and that alone could be enough to keep him out the rest of the season. There’s even a chance that further tests show that there is indeed some fracture or bone damage that wasn’t obvious in this recent MRI. I should also note that, so far, it’s Griffin himself paraphrasing what he’s been told… we haven’t heard anything directly from The Doctor (the esteem Robert Anderson). Dr. Anderson is known to be (appropriately) deliberate and thorough in his prescribed rehab processes, so what he says will be far more important than what Griffin says.
The last thing I’d like to point out here is that, even without a fracture, that early 4-5 week timeline is still probably nonsense. In that great article, the authors talk to multiple specialists in the field, and they all ballpark a non-fracture, best case scenario rehab of a “simple” dislocation at about two months. That’s eight weeks, people. One doctor in the article says, “6-8 weeks minumum,” while another says, “two months,” but really, that’s pretty much a two month consensus. (One doctor in there even pegs it closer to 12 weeks, but let’s leave that alone for now.) Let’s take a look at how that works out on the schedule. Injury comes Week 2…. out a full eight weeks… carry the one… you’re looking at maybe a Week 11 return. Week 10 if he’s lucky. And that’s all assuming that this is still, A: a simple dislocation with no larger damage, and B: a situation where Kirk Cousins plays poorly enough that they want Griffin back.
So yup, looks like I might be wrong about expecting the fracture and the obvious IR. But let’s see how this unfolds before I have to put this in my loss column.
