I’ve watched college and professional football for some 60 years. I was in front of the tube viewing Monday Night Football in 1985 when New York Giants linebacker Lawrence (LT) Taylor sacked Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theisman, causing Theisman to gruesomely suffer a compound fracture of his tibia and fibula in his right leg. (The injury was later voted the NFL’s “Most Shocking Moment in History.”)
I was in the stands the night Mitchell’s Cal Bears’ running back teammate, attempting to elude a tackle, tried to hurdle an oncoming defender. Instead of clearing the tackler, he was propelled upward and began spinning like a whirlybird. He crashed to the ground, sustaining a serious concussion. It was the first of many concussions for this rising star, a precursor to a career cut short because of multiple head traumas.
I was in the stands the evening Geoffrey horrifically dislocated his right big toe during a pre-season game when playing for the New York Giants. The severity of the injury was one the head team doctor had never seen before.
And I was sitting on my couch enjoying an NFL Thursday Night contest when a player received a crushing blow to his chest, immediately causing him to go into cardiac arrest. He almost died on the field if not for the extraordinary attention provided by the teams’ medical personnel. (Postscript – Damar Hamlin survived and still finds himself on an NFL roster.)
Injuries have always been part of the game. Lord knows, I have personal experience. Outlined in my memoir Raising Giants – My Extraordinary Journey with TWO NFL Sons are the double-digit injuries suffered collectively by Geoffrey and Mitchell – back surgeries, broken legs, hip damage, knee injuries and the list goes on – skewed heavily toward Geoffrey. So even someone like me comes to accept the reality of this game. But this year, something seems different.
One can’t seemingly watch a game (for this blog I’m focusing on the NFL), read post-game clippings, without seeing/hearing about a rash of injuries that just seem, at least to me, to exceed the norm. First, what is the norm? To answer that question let’s begin by separating out concussions. It would appear from available data that the instances of concussions have dropped in the NFL. Credit league leadership for that reality. In 2015, players suffered 275 recorded concussions covering both pre- and regular season. That number dramatically dropped to 182 in 2024. Gotta be better but let’s give credit where credit is due.
But otherwise, well, it’s kinda hard to tangibly assess injury numbers. In preparation for this piece, I attempted to locate articles on injury trends. Not terribly easy to come by. What I did uncover is that opinions differ. Some articles suggest that injuries are no more prevalent this year than in past years. Other reports suggest that injuries have increased this season, however the opinions are more anecdotal and not statistically supported. I believe the latter – injuries have increased.
Let’s look at quarterbacks. From my personal research, I’ve counted about 15 QBs . . . mostly starters . . . who are either out for the season or have missed multiple games. The depth of any position on an NFL team is not great, so once a team must rely on a backup, the play on the field will certainly suffer.
So too will the level of play decline when offensive linemen are forced to miss time. Here are a couple of examples:
- Left tackle Rashawn Slater of the L.A. Chargers went down in pre-season to an injury that will rob him of the entire year. (He had just signed a significant new contract days before the injury. According to the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), Rashawn will get paid his full salary nonetheless.) A week or two into the season the Chargers right tackle Joe Alt was injured. He subsequently returned but shortly thereafter hurt himself once again. Out for the remainder of the season. A third o-lineman was also injured and is out for the season.
Offensive line play is viewed by many in the know to have declined over the years. Spread offenses in college don’t prepare the linemen for the pros. Less practice time, thanks to the recently negotiated CBAs, impacts performance on the field. Seems to me one’s gotta practice to get better.
Imagine having one key lineman out. But three! There’s no chance of having the talent behind them to step in and not skip a beat. The Chargers’ QB Justin Herbert is on track to be beaten and battered more than any other QB in NFL history.
- Many consider Patrick Mahomes to be the best QB in the league since 2019. But look at Super Bowl LIX at the end of the 2024 NFL season. The Chiefs got smacked by the Philadelphia Eagles. Why? In large part because they were down three linemen who were starters when the season began. The group who took the field in the SB were just not talented enough to hold their own against the Philly D. It was also reflected in Mahomes’ play. Happy feet. Quick releases.
The same is happening in 2025. The Chiefs last few games have found the o-line with replacements at both tackle spots and their All-Pro right guard. The offense has ground to a halt. With the defeat and their record sitting at 6-7, K.C. will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
So a question comes to my mind. Why are below-the-neck injuries seemingly on the rise? Here are some explanations being offered:
- Playing surfaces – Field-turf vs. natural grass. The former a whole lot less forgiving than the latter.
- Scheduling – Does a 17th regular season game matter that much?
- Pre-NFL careers – Too much football played before entering the NFL. Is there a shelf life?
All reasonable, for sure. But I have two explanations . . . or maybe more appropriately theories . . . that I have yet to see offered:
- Mother Nature
· − The human skeleton has not changed over the millennia. We still have 24 ribs as did our ancestors. As adults we still have 26 vertebrae. Our knees are still held together by the same tendons and ligaments as those that came before us.
− But never until recent times has the human skeleton had to support the weight and muscularity of today’s football athletes. My conjecture is that injuries, especially to soft tissues, are occurring more frequently because the human body cannot withstand the stresses and strains caused by the extra weight, extra muscles, extra forces being exerted on our bones, ligaments, tendons, tissues, etc.
I have no medical background or training so maybe I need to consult with some that do to assess the veracity of this speculation, but it does seem very plausible to me . . . and to many that I’ve shared this with.
- Bodies Overworked
− Back in the day . . . the “day” being several decades ago . . . professional football players had a much more defined season. They reported to camp (without a whole lot of preparation), played the regular season and then onto the playoffs for the few teams that did qualify for post-season activity. And that was basically it. Stories abound about NFLers taking secondary jobs during the off-season to make ends meet.
− Off-season” is the critical term here because in today’s world off-season for many players just doesn’t exist. As an extreme example, it’s been reported that James Harrison, formerly of the Pittsburgh Steelers, gave himself maybe a week off after concluding one season to begin workouts for the next. It’s regular practice these days for players to spend most of the months between January and August working out to some degree to prepare for the next season.
− So tell me, when does the body have a chance to rest and recover? Surely training regiments have improved over the years with players investing robust amounts of money to hopefully account for recovery time, but to this greenhorn, I would believe that the body needs far more recuperation time than it’s given in today’s world.
− Bottom line, the body is just worn out.
To me, these two explanations contribute more to the seeming wave of increased injuries than anything else I’ve heard or read.
So let’s circle back to my question in the blog’s title. Are all these injuries, whether statistically greater or not, adversely impacting the game of football? To me, it’s a resounding yes. As I alluded to earlier, second stringers are second stringers for a reason. The NFL just doesn’t possess the talent depth to constantly overcome these injuries. Simply subtraction by addition, i.e. the more injuries the less talent on the field.
I’ve heard so often when listening to football game commentators the mantra offered by coaches when injuries occur – “Next man up!” Sure, there will always be another body to run onto the gridiron, but at what cost to the quality of the game? (As a quick aside, to accentuate this approach, let me share what Geoffrey has described to me and offered on his radio shows. If a player is injured during practice such that medical attention is required on the field, practice isn’t halted. Any drills/ scrimmages underway are just moved to another section of the field and “business as usual.”)
If you’d like to jump in with your thoughts, hit me up at on RaisingGiantsBook on IG, X and FB or at lee@raisinggiantsbook.com.
– – – –
Postscript #1 – The day I began typing this blog two news reports caught my attention. A couple of former NFL stars passed tryouts and signed new contracts to play once again.
- Being described as the “Geritol Gunslinger,” eight-time Pro Bowl QB Philip Rivers signed a practice squad contract to join the Indianapolis Colts. He last spun the pigskin in 2020.
- Jason Pierre-Paul, one of the most fearsome defensive ends in NFL history, has signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ practice squad at age 36. He last caused havoc on the field in 2023.
Does one need any more evidence of what’s happening in the NFL? Injuries are so extensive that homebodies are being summoned to suit up and fill vacated roster spots.
– – – –
Postscript #2 – The first draft of this blog took place in the days leading up to the NFL’s week 15 games. The outcome of the weekend contests just affirms to me what you have read above. Kansas City’s superstar QB Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL and LCL and will not only miss the remainder of this year but possibly the beginning of next season. Same fate struck Micah Parsons, considered as one of the best defensive players in the NFL.
While watching the Chiefs’ game, at least five other players were walked off the field with various injuries. Some returned to action while others remained on the sidelines. This group included top-tier players like Chris Jones, Xavier Worthy and Rashee Rice, all significant contributors to the team. You can’t convince me that having this group miss time on the field will not impact the competitiveness of the team.