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http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colu...cle_dcd0aa06-1692-52a9-a208-27909ab169ae.html
CHARLOTTE, N.C. • Of all the disturbing sights that can occur in the wide world of pro sports, few scenes pack the emotionally devastating wallop to the collective gut of a franchise or fan base than the horrendous visual of a talented young NFL quarterback writhing on the ground, groping helplessly at a twisted knee that’s stabbing him with unimaginable pain.
Seasons are wrecked by millionaire quarterbacks felled by blown knees.
Carefully plotted long-range championship plans can be forever ruined by the capricious misfortune of a gifted passer lying in an agonizing heap.
Entire pages of masterfully crafted playbooks can be shredded and incredibly desperate measures can be fleetingly or seriously contemplated (see: Tim Tebow-to-the-Rams rumors) in unsettling times such as these.
So here was that very situation unfolding Sunday on the Rams’ sideline late in their 30-15 loss to Carolina.
Sam Bradford — the $78 million Face of the Franchise, the linchpin to the reconstruction of everything the Rams cling to offensively — was crumpled in a heap, his face contorted, his season potentially ruined.
About an hour later as Bradford was whisked out a locker-room back door and off to a team bus with his left knee immobilized by a cumbersome, ankle-to-thigh brace, coach Jeff Fisher tried to tamp down all the worst-case disaster speculation until the results of a late-Sunday night MRI could determine just how bad the damage to Bradford’s left knee might be. But late Sunday night there was no reason to think Bradford will return this season.
Fisher had reason to cling to a faintest hope of good news. But that doesn’t stop us from getting a head start on a walk down that dark and ugly road. So here goes:
What if it’s as bad as it looked? What if the knee is a wreck and the Rams have to make do without him for the rest of the season?
These are the two most logical predictions for the Rams’ foreseeable future:
In his last extended playing time for the Rams —in 2011 when Bradford was last injured — Clemens had an 0-3 record as a starter, including a nine-for-24, 91-yard passing effort in a 27-0 loss to Pittsburgh.
So with all due respect to Clemens, the Rams are in for a rocky road if Bradford is done for the season.I saw the way he went down. I saw the tight TV close-ups of the excruciating pain etched on his face. I saw the high degree of concern on the face of his nervous parents as they stood outside the visitors’ locker room, and the somber expression Kent Bradford wore after he came back out of that locker room having talked to his son, and Martha’s pale face after her husband whispered something in her ear.
And I saw the seething anger in his teammates’ eyes on the field after Bradford was hit by safety Mike Mitchell as the QB ran out of bounds, and the outrage they expressed after the game about why the rather flag-crazy officiating crew didn’t appear to be all that interested in protecting Bradford, or flagging Mitchell for his bush-league taunting after he delivered the unnecessary blow that probably ended Bradford’s season.
“It was terrible, just terrible,” Rams tight end Jared Cook said. “I don’t think it was right. If it was any other quarterback I think (the refs) would have protected him. But who am I to say? … I’m not saying it was a cheap shot, but usually when a quarterback is going out of bounds, or when they’re giving themselves up (you don’t hit the quarterback). So I don’t understand why in this instance it was different. But the referees deemed fit not to call anything on this play and they have to sleep with themselves at night.”
In a game that often resembled a barroom brawl for its edginess, it was inevitable that tempers would flare and the overall nastiness of this contest would end up with the worst sort of collateral damage for the Rams.
The refs did a terrible job of getting this chippy game under control. There were cheap shots, hits after the whistle and a decided mood of intimidation from the start, and no one on either sideline could play the role of wide-eyed innocents. This was the NFL exposing its most violent and dark mood. Everyone was trying to deliver an intimidating blow, talk trash, get an extra lick in. Rams defenders made no bones about blasting Panthers QB Cam Newton on read-option plays because he is a legitimate threat to beat you with his arm or his legs.
But the Panthers took exception and the bad blood escalated into a nasty football war. Unfortunately for the Rams, they were the ones who seemed to get caught when the refs decided much too late to try to get the game under control.
“Hey, let’s make this very clear: We deserved everything we got from the refs,” said one player who preferred to remain anonymous because he has an allergy to being fined by the league for ripping the refs. “But we weren’t out there by ourselves. The Panthers were doing the same dirt we were doing. They just didn’t get caught. I don’t get that. Do you think we were the only ones out there talking trash, provoking and doing cheap shots?”
But the Rams didn’t keep their composure, and they allowed the Panthers to win the psychological war because the bottom line is, the Rams were hurt in every way by this out-of-control contest. But the justice that was doled out Sunday did seem out of proportion and it’s remarkable that something more dangerous didn’t happen considering the way the refs botched so many things, from the midgame brawl that got Chris Long (but no one else) ejected to the entire madness surrounding the Bradford-Mitchell-Harvey Dahl mess.
If you’re the refs, you can’t allow a man to stand over an injured player with his fists pumping in the air like he’s Rocky Balboa. How can Mitchell get away with the hit, then do that bush-league taunt, and the only player who gets a penalty is the justifiably outraged Rams guard Dahl, who charged onto the field and contemplated some serious Old Testament justice on Mitchell before coming to his senses.
It’s amazing that Dahl didn’t inflict any more serious pain on Mitchell considering the circumstances.Dahl wasn’t talking afterward, but offensive lineman Rodger Saffold was and he spoke for Dahl and everyone else in the Rams’ locker room.
“It’s hard to tell a grown man to hold back his emotions,” Saffold said. “You have someone constantly egging you on, taunting going on back and forth, little stuff that the refs don’t see ...”
There was no need for Saffold to finish the sentence. I’ll finish it for him.
The league needs to throw a flag on this officiating crew for this shameful performance, too. The referees were just as much to blame for this unsightly game and the unnecessary collateral damage that was inflicted as any of the hotheaded players they penalized or ejected.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. • Of all the disturbing sights that can occur in the wide world of pro sports, few scenes pack the emotionally devastating wallop to the collective gut of a franchise or fan base than the horrendous visual of a talented young NFL quarterback writhing on the ground, groping helplessly at a twisted knee that’s stabbing him with unimaginable pain.
Seasons are wrecked by millionaire quarterbacks felled by blown knees.
Carefully plotted long-range championship plans can be forever ruined by the capricious misfortune of a gifted passer lying in an agonizing heap.
Entire pages of masterfully crafted playbooks can be shredded and incredibly desperate measures can be fleetingly or seriously contemplated (see: Tim Tebow-to-the-Rams rumors) in unsettling times such as these.
So here was that very situation unfolding Sunday on the Rams’ sideline late in their 30-15 loss to Carolina.
Sam Bradford — the $78 million Face of the Franchise, the linchpin to the reconstruction of everything the Rams cling to offensively — was crumpled in a heap, his face contorted, his season potentially ruined.
About an hour later as Bradford was whisked out a locker-room back door and off to a team bus with his left knee immobilized by a cumbersome, ankle-to-thigh brace, coach Jeff Fisher tried to tamp down all the worst-case disaster speculation until the results of a late-Sunday night MRI could determine just how bad the damage to Bradford’s left knee might be. But late Sunday night there was no reason to think Bradford will return this season.
Fisher had reason to cling to a faintest hope of good news. But that doesn’t stop us from getting a head start on a walk down that dark and ugly road. So here goes:
What if it’s as bad as it looked? What if the knee is a wreck and the Rams have to make do without him for the rest of the season?
These are the two most logical predictions for the Rams’ foreseeable future:
- Losing Bradford will be a monumental, but not impossible, struggle to overcome.
- It could be an unsightly, unfortunate offensive disaster that could wreck a once-promising season beyond repair.
- You are certifiable fools.
- Be very careful for what you wish.
In his last extended playing time for the Rams —in 2011 when Bradford was last injured — Clemens had an 0-3 record as a starter, including a nine-for-24, 91-yard passing effort in a 27-0 loss to Pittsburgh.
So with all due respect to Clemens, the Rams are in for a rocky road if Bradford is done for the season.I saw the way he went down. I saw the tight TV close-ups of the excruciating pain etched on his face. I saw the high degree of concern on the face of his nervous parents as they stood outside the visitors’ locker room, and the somber expression Kent Bradford wore after he came back out of that locker room having talked to his son, and Martha’s pale face after her husband whispered something in her ear.
And I saw the seething anger in his teammates’ eyes on the field after Bradford was hit by safety Mike Mitchell as the QB ran out of bounds, and the outrage they expressed after the game about why the rather flag-crazy officiating crew didn’t appear to be all that interested in protecting Bradford, or flagging Mitchell for his bush-league taunting after he delivered the unnecessary blow that probably ended Bradford’s season.
“It was terrible, just terrible,” Rams tight end Jared Cook said. “I don’t think it was right. If it was any other quarterback I think (the refs) would have protected him. But who am I to say? … I’m not saying it was a cheap shot, but usually when a quarterback is going out of bounds, or when they’re giving themselves up (you don’t hit the quarterback). So I don’t understand why in this instance it was different. But the referees deemed fit not to call anything on this play and they have to sleep with themselves at night.”
In a game that often resembled a barroom brawl for its edginess, it was inevitable that tempers would flare and the overall nastiness of this contest would end up with the worst sort of collateral damage for the Rams.
The refs did a terrible job of getting this chippy game under control. There were cheap shots, hits after the whistle and a decided mood of intimidation from the start, and no one on either sideline could play the role of wide-eyed innocents. This was the NFL exposing its most violent and dark mood. Everyone was trying to deliver an intimidating blow, talk trash, get an extra lick in. Rams defenders made no bones about blasting Panthers QB Cam Newton on read-option plays because he is a legitimate threat to beat you with his arm or his legs.
But the Panthers took exception and the bad blood escalated into a nasty football war. Unfortunately for the Rams, they were the ones who seemed to get caught when the refs decided much too late to try to get the game under control.
“Hey, let’s make this very clear: We deserved everything we got from the refs,” said one player who preferred to remain anonymous because he has an allergy to being fined by the league for ripping the refs. “But we weren’t out there by ourselves. The Panthers were doing the same dirt we were doing. They just didn’t get caught. I don’t get that. Do you think we were the only ones out there talking trash, provoking and doing cheap shots?”
But the Rams didn’t keep their composure, and they allowed the Panthers to win the psychological war because the bottom line is, the Rams were hurt in every way by this out-of-control contest. But the justice that was doled out Sunday did seem out of proportion and it’s remarkable that something more dangerous didn’t happen considering the way the refs botched so many things, from the midgame brawl that got Chris Long (but no one else) ejected to the entire madness surrounding the Bradford-Mitchell-Harvey Dahl mess.
If you’re the refs, you can’t allow a man to stand over an injured player with his fists pumping in the air like he’s Rocky Balboa. How can Mitchell get away with the hit, then do that bush-league taunt, and the only player who gets a penalty is the justifiably outraged Rams guard Dahl, who charged onto the field and contemplated some serious Old Testament justice on Mitchell before coming to his senses.
It’s amazing that Dahl didn’t inflict any more serious pain on Mitchell considering the circumstances.Dahl wasn’t talking afterward, but offensive lineman Rodger Saffold was and he spoke for Dahl and everyone else in the Rams’ locker room.
“It’s hard to tell a grown man to hold back his emotions,” Saffold said. “You have someone constantly egging you on, taunting going on back and forth, little stuff that the refs don’t see ...”
There was no need for Saffold to finish the sentence. I’ll finish it for him.
The league needs to throw a flag on this officiating crew for this shameful performance, too. The referees were just as much to blame for this unsightly game and the unnecessary collateral damage that was inflicted as any of the hotheaded players they penalized or ejected.
