Washington tackle Trent Williams was injured on Sunday with what we now know to be an MCL sprain. For once, I’m going to go against my own pessimistic grain on this one. I’m not going to dig up any MCL sprain return-to-play examples or compare Williams to any past players. Anyone know why? Because Trent Williams is perhaps the toughest man ever to have lived. In the future, armor-piercing ammunition will be made out of Trentanium. If there were any justice, our courts would be swamped with litigation over changing every Chuck Norris joke into a Trent Williams joke. What’s the big deal? In case you don’t know the legend, Trent Williams was assaulted at a nightclub in Honolulu right before the 2012 season Pro Bowl (played in January of 2013). During the scuffle, Williams was lit up with a taser and hit over the head with a Champagne bottle. Yeah, that’s all pretty great, but the amazing part is that Williams did not fall down! He even passed two concussion tests afterwards. If you don’t believe me, read about it here.
Honestly, how could I ever take a super-human like that and compare him to the (admittedly strong) mortals in my database? It simple can’t be done. Trent Williams will play whenever he likes to play, and there’s nothing my data can do about it.
Uh, doesn’t this puffed up praise of a player’s ability to play through injuries directly contradict the usefulness of a catalog of injuries? Even if he can play through them now, Trent will probably face the same effects of all mortal players after he retires and years of accumulated nicks and bruises finally hobble him.
I disagree. I think there is a lot to be said for someone who can play through pain in any walk of life, especially in the NFL. The January 2013 citation, in addition to being hysterical, serves as an important illustration that this man is, in fact, a beast who may be able to defy many laws of nature, including a hobbled retirement.
In my own attempts to do injury prediction, there’s just so much we don’t know at an individual level. Population averages are a fine place to start, but (depending on the injury) there is often a LOT of variance we can’t explain – maybe it’s genetics or a social predisposition to be a “beast,” but there do seem to be some guys who are just iron men.
Still, I would present the population averages and reasonable confidence intervals, then frame it with the context of “Trent Williams is made of diamonds and jagged metal Krusty-Os.”