Anyone else out there fascinated with the ongoing drama of Bengals LB Vontaze Burfict and his bum knee? No? Well, aside from an increasingly-ridiculous Patriots story, there’s not a ton else to really talk about. In case you don’t remember, Vontaze Burfict’s knee first showed up on the injury radar back in October. Before week 9, Burfict underwent arthroscopic knee surgery, or a, “knee scope,” as we casually call it. At the time, everyone was quick to downplay the severity of the procedure, saying that Burfict might be back in as little as two weeks. Fast forward to the (semi-) interesting part… Burfict never returned. He was out six weeks before the Bengals threw in the towel and placed him on injured reserve for the last three weeks. Yup, he missed nine weeks with what people were guessing was a two week injury. It’s not even that two weeks was a bad guess, it’s just the usual media/player/coach optimistic sort of guess. Plenty of players make it back after two weeks. Some do not.
What bugs me here is that nobody ever seems to remember that sometimes these rehabs don’t go according to plan. When I bring this up and point out historical examples of players who did not recover well, I’m accused of being too pessimistic. In fact, in the case of Burfict, I wrote a piece criticizing how optimistic everyone was being even after it was reported that Burfict would likely need additional knee surgery! Given all this background with Burfict, perhaps you can see why I’m so interested in yet another development in regards to his knee. This morning, Ian Rapoport at NFL.com published a good, detailed story about how Burfict had recently undergone microfracture surgery. Again, great story, as Rapoport was able to get specific details from the doctor who preformed the surgery. In case you don’t know much about microfracture rehabs, you can read what I wrote about it in the case of Jadeveon Clowney earlier this season. In a nutshell, it’s not pretty. In fact, it’s about as unpretty as a knee injury can be.
My point here is simply that sometimes, “minor procedures,” don’t go according to plan. Or they’re not enough. There’s no reason to think that there was anything wrong with the first procedure Burfict underwent. It’s more likely that it was the first, most conservative attempt to treat his injured knee. I’m am absolutely not saying that this was handled poorly. What I am saying is that, when you see these reports about players undergoing seemingly-minor procedures, you need to keep in mind that there might be much more happening under the surface. These minor procedures might simply be the first attempt to treat a very serious, possibly chronic condition that has the potential to affect the player’s entire career. So maybe cut me some slack next time I try to point out how optimistic one of those return-to-play estimates is. Or not. Either way.
