Shaun Rogers: Maybe Not A Complete Tool

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Peter King has a tough (relatively speaking) job of finding 30 or so important football items to discuss weekly at great length. He often fails to find 30.

But this week, he has some gems and I highly recommend the read.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/01/02/week-17/index.html

But I would like to highlight one story about a player that I had previously thought simply didn't get it. And Morgan Cox is a pretty tough guy as well.


There's something to admire about Morgan Cox.

A lot, actually. And he's not the only one to admire in this story. Cox is the Ravens' long-snapper. Was. Last week, early in the second quarter, he got hurt in a pileup on a Baltimore field-goal try. Hurt would be putting it mildly. Actually, 700 pounds of lineman -- Cleveland defensive tackle Shaun Rogers and Baltimore guard Marshall Yanda -- fell on his left leg after he'd snapped the ball for the field goal, and the knee concaved to the right. Cox screamed so loud, Rogers said, that he knew he was hurt severely. Somehow, Cox limped to the sideline, where he collapsed and started rolling around in pain. "An extreme amount of pain,'' he said.

At first, docs thought it was an MCL tear, but that he could return to the game and gut it out. At halftime, upon further review in the locker room, he said he was diagnosed with grade-three (severe, that is) ACL and MCL tears. "But I knew I could get the job done,'' he said. "There's lot of different ways of snapping. Some guys use their legs for power. I pretty much do it all with my arms. And I don't think it fully registered with me how serious it was. It was a big game, and I said, I'm fine to play. I went up to the guys on the line, and said, 'I'm gonna need some help. I'm gonna get the snap off, but you gotta help me after that.' So when we went back out there, I heard Michael Oher say to the Browns, 'Stay off the snapper, stay off the snapper.' ''

There's a fine line here between playing hard and being sympathetic to a wounded competitor, and Rogers did a gallant job straddling it in the second half. Rogers knew Cox was injured; he'd heard him scream in agony after the injury. On an extra point try, after the ball was over the line, Rogers saw Cox falling back awkwardly. He reached over and grabbed Cox's jersey to prevent him from falling and perhaps hurting the leg further. "Unbelievable,'' Cox said. "I felt this hand hold me up and just figured it was one of our guys, but it was Shaun Rogers. I'll never forget him for that.''

I called the Browns and asked to speak to Rogers, but he declined. He said the play was over, and he knew the kid was hurt, and it was something even major rivals would do for each other. No big deal.

I think it is a big deal. As was the game ball Cox got in the locker room. "Very courageous thing you did, Morgan,'' Harbaugh told him. "That was a thrill,'' Cox said. "An unbelievable honor. Probably the thing I'll always remember is Terrell Suggs coming up to me, surprised, during the game and saying, 'He's still snapping! He's still in the game!' But he did remind me I was still a rookie.'' After that game, I'd call Cox an honorary veteran.

Cox will be in the office of noted orthopedist James Andrews on Tuesday, with a plan for surgery to repair the ligaments.


Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/01/02/week-17/index.html#ixzz1A0izlYyW

[MJZiggy]

That is a big deal.

[swede]

In that vein, AJ Hawk nearly took Matt Forte's head off on a tackle that was initiated about two feet from the sideline and ended with Forte being thrown through a photographer and into a kicking net fifteen feet away. On their way back to the field they were jawing with each other happily, smiling and enjoying the competition. The violence of the game can make it hard for us all to remember that these men are professionals at their business. I suppose some of them need to manufacture some sort of imagined anger or hatred, but I get the feeling that most football players have no problem playing with tremendous physical intensity and violence from whistle to whistle without losing sight of the fact that the opposing players are their brothers also.

[Scott Campbell]

Dayum! Good sportsmanship. But guys shouldn't be encouraging messed up players to gut it out like that. There are enough injuries in football already. And the Raven medical staff should be ashamed.

[Joemailman]

Dayum! Good sportsmanship. But guys shouldn't be encouraging messed up players to gut it out like that. There are enough injuries in football already. And the Raven medical staff should be ashamed.

If you've torn a ligament, can you really do more damage by playing on it? I thought it was more a matter of a torn ligament normally making it impossible for a guy to move effectively on it.

[Scott Campbell]

If you've torn a ligament, can you really do more damage by playing on it? I thought it was more a matter of a torn ligament normally making it impossible for a guy to move effectively on it.


I suspect it is difficult to say without further medical assessment - which wasn't done.

[hoosier]

If you've torn a ligament, can you really do more damage by playing on it? I thought it was more a matter of a torn ligament normally making it impossible for a guy to move effectively on it.

Yes. The ligaments are (were) what stabilizes the knee. With two tears his knee would have been flopping around like an old barn door and prone to even worse shredding. He's lucky he's not looking like the Black Knight in Monty Python.

[pbmax]

In that vein, AJ Hawk nearly took Matt Forte's head off on a tackle that was initiated about two feet from the sideline and ended with Forte being thrown through a photographer and into a kicking net fifteen feet away. On their way back to the field they were jawing with each other happily, smiling and enjoying the competition. The violence of the game can make it hard for us all to remember that these men are professionals at their business. I suppose some of them need to manufacture some sort of imagined anger or hatred, but I get the feeling that most football players have no problem playing with tremendous physical intensity and violence from whistle to whistle without losing sight of the fact that the opposing players are their brothers also.

Agreed. And while Hawk might have gotten one extra shove in after the sideline, it was a solid, legal hit. He has been playing well. If he had half a step more quickness or top end speed, I think he would be able to do it all in the middle. Capers really had Martz's offense dialed in. I suspect that is because Martz has had to rein in much of his normal chicanery to keep Cutler alive. Kudos to him and Lovie for adjusting.

[Guiness]

Agreed. And while Hawk might have gotten one extra shove in after the sideline, it was a solid, legal hit. He has been playing well. If he had half a step more quickness or top end speed, I think he would be able to do it all in the middle. Capers really had Martz's offense dialed in. I suspect that is because Martz has had to rein in much of his normal chicanery to keep Cutler alive. Kudos to him and Lovie for adjusting.

6 sacks, and he really got blasted on two of them.

[MichiganPackerFan]

Peter King has a tough (relatively speaking) job of finding 30 or so important football items to discuss weekly at great length. He often fails to find 30.

But this week, he has some gems and I highly recommend the read.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/01/02/week-17/index.html

But I would like to highlight one story about a player that I had previously thought simply didn't get it. And Morgan Cox is a pretty tough guy as well.

I read that too and was really impressed by Rogers. I always liked the way he played, but he was pretty classy on that one.


In that vein, AJ Hawk nearly took Matt Forte's head off on a tackle that was initiated about two feet from the sideline and ended with Forte being thrown through a photographer and into a kicking net fifteen feet away. On their way back to the field they were jawing with each other happily, smiling and enjoying the competition. ....

I also noticed that while most players in that situation would at least check the cameraman to make sure he was ok, neither of these two so much as glanced at him. They're wearing pads: he is not.