Todd Gurley Gets Desperate
So is Todd Gurley dead or what?
It feels like every once in a while, we get a tiny snippet of information about Gurley, and it always gets worse. First he got hurt late in the season and missed some games. Then he helped destroy the Cowboys in the divisional round and had a great game. Then all of a sudden he vanished.
He had almost no action during the championship game against the Saints, leaving many people a little confused. A small level of concern developed leading into the Super Bowl. I saw reports he was fine. I saw reports that he was literally falling apart. The Super Bowl ended up favoring the latter argument, as Gurley did jack during the game, getting a depressing 35 yards on ten carries. Of course part of that can be attributed to the Patriots playing perfect defense and Sean McVay’s stubborn insistence on doing nothing about it, but it was hard to look at Gurley and not feel like something was very off.
Shortly after the bowl ended, we found out that Gurley has arthritis in his knee. That sounds…bad. I’m surprised more of a deal hasn’t been made about this. Gurley famously had a terrible knee injury in college (to the same knee) that involved the usual torn ACL. He’s been healthy in the NFL until this, but arthritis isn’t like an ACL tear. Arthritis is a swelling of your joints and stiffness, and it gets worse with age. Gurley is 24 and this is already a problem. Arthritis is a chronic issue.
I admittedly don’t actually know much about arthritis, especially injury related arthritis (which knee injuries can apparently cause in younger athletes), but is this a problem he can not worry about? Can you just heal arthritis? I was always under the impression once you had some arthritis, it is just there now, and you just have to take steps to manage it. If anybody knows more about this, please comment, because Gurley seems to think it’s no big deal but it seems like a big deal to me.
I can’t imagine a chronic swelling and stiffness is going to get better playing football. He’ll probably take a ton of drugs to keep swelling and pain minimized but that doesn’t help the problem, just hides it. Last year might have been the last we see of All-pro level Gurley. It feels like he’s headed for a cliff.
small correction: it’s THE ARTHURITIS
Yeah, the arthritis isn’t great, but I’m not surprised with a professional athlete.
Mandatory disclaimer: I’m an ER doctor, not an orthopedist or sports med.
Arthritis really isn’t swelling and stiffness of the joints, those are really side effects or symptoms of what’s going on, similar to associated pain. Really, it’s inflammation and destruction of the cartilage in your joints. The cartilage is what allows your bones to glide smoothly against one another and to provide some cushion between the bones in the joints. That inflammation and destruction causes the swelling, stiffness, and pain. Most athletes will develop arthritis at a younger age than the general population just due to use and abuse. It will get worse with age, but you can slow the progression if you take care of it and manage it properly. Now, that doesn’t mean don’t use your leg, etc, that will actually make it worse because it will stiffen more, but you need to give it some rest.
Arthritis is really the reason most people have knee replacements. All the cartilage has been destroyed, so you figuratively have bone rubbing on bone, causing immense pain. Of it’s gone, all you can really do if all of the supportive treatments done give you relief is replace the knee with an artificial one.
Sorry, I’d give a more thorough explanation, but I’m stuck commenting through my phone.
My buddy has injury related arthritis in his shoulders after years of intense swimming and weight train injuries that forced him to end his collegiate swimming career early. When I met him he was an absolute monster who could bench close to 400 lbs. Now that his arthritis is affecting him more he’s not allowed to do more than a pushup.
You misspelled ‘premier’.
Good thing the Rams guaranteed him $40mil on his contract.
That albatross won’t weigh them down at all when he can’t play at all in another year.
Maybe he can get some of that Ray Lewis deer antler spray?
what blade_beam said, thats as good a primer on arthritis as any
basically yeah gurley should be taking it more seriously if he hopes to do more with his career
Could that have been the last chance for the Rams to get a Super Bowl? Don’t want to sound like too much of a downer, but there’s no way the offense has that kind of a year again, especially with Gurley hurt. The defense will still be great, and you heard how Aaron Donald really wants a ring, but I just don’t know if they’ll get a chance like last season. Such a winnable super bowl and they choked it away. With all the competition in the NFC it will be so hard for them to even get back, yet alone win.
Yee
I’ve got arthritis in my wrist and I suspect my knees. Yeah his knees aren’t gonna get better. All that cartilage is being worn down, probably from the sheer workload of being an RB. He’s gonna need to take a step back and not run as much, which probably kills him as an NFL player.
As a Niners fan, it’s tearing me all up inside to hear about this.
Blade_beam nailed it. I had injury-related arthritis in my big toe joint where it attaches to the foot. (I wish I had a cool football story to explain it, but my doc said it was probably from just stubbing it so many times in my klutzy life….)
The lack of cartilage made it very painful to walk. The solution for me was surgery to (1) pop my toe off (2) grind off the remaining cartilage from the toe and foot, and (3) screw the raw bones back together so they grow together as one big (inflexible) bone.
Maybe not the best solution for a knee problem…..
The whole Gurley situation is just a disaster for running backs in general and a huge setback to the whole campaign to make RBs relevant again. He signed a huge deal, got hurt, and was easily replaced by an out-of-shape CJ Anderson. Now he may never reach his previous form and still has his 2019 and 2020 salaries guaranteed. Other teams will take warning and be hesitant to sign any similar deals and the market will stagnate again.
Meanwhile, his college backups (Chubb and Michel) are about to destroy the world.
I do injury law and it seems a lot of folks with really bad arthritis go for a total knee replacement. It takes all that degenerative crap out BUT I dont have anyone that does that and goes into a contact sport, let alone at a pro level. I wonder if it’s been done…
I would have gone with “CEO OF LA Reactive Activity Muscle Systems” but that’s just me