Category: Sports

Colts rout show they really need Manning; But does a recovering Manning really need the game?

Football season is here and I am pleased with that fact. Especially pleasing is that the NFL started playing this week since the league owners earlier lockout looked as if the season could be torpedoed. That is a whole different ball of string however and the important message to take away from this is — the Texans whipped Indianapolis like the proverbial rented mule.

A varied attack by ground and air along with a 79-yard punt return by Texans wide receiver Jacoby Jones helped Houston put 34 points on the board. Meanwhile, what appears to be a greatly improved defense from last year led by homeboy Wade Phillips — the Texans defensive coach and former Dallas head coach played high school football near here at Port Neches-Groves — limited the Colts to just seven points.

Of course, everyone and their hog points out: “But what about no Peyton playing for Indy?” This is while simultaneously Texans fans ask? “But what about no Arian in the Texans backfield?”

There is really no comparison there, of course. The Texans running back Arian Foster, who made the Pro Bowl in his second season after being an undrafted free agent, has been sidelined with a hamstring problem. Foster flabbergasted much of the sports world by sending out a copy via Twitter of his MRI picture of the injured hammy while Houston management looked upon the situation in a snit. Sending unauthorized medical information via social media is against team policy and rightly so because this knowledge can give the competition an edge. Would you say the no-no made Foster a “Twit?”

Peyton Manning is an entirely different subject. The future Hall of Fame quarterback has been sidelined after having cervical spine surgery, his third such operation, this time requiring fusion.

This is a surgery, known as an “anterior cervical discectomy with fusion” (ACDF), is something I know a little bit about as I went through the same procedure in 2001.

The ACDF is one of the more common spinal procedures. Manning called the surgery “minimally invasive,” which is correct, although the simplicity that the term implies should not be confused with the complexity of the operation and a patient’s healing. It is a safe operation with one study of 1,095 patients showing a morbidity rate of 19.3 percent. The majority of the complications in the study were esophageal-related, including difficulty swallowing. Hoarseness is a common complication, read on to learn the reason why.

A surgeon cuts a very small incision in a crease of the frontal neck. Using small retractors, the esophagus is pushed off to the side and the carotid artery and jugular vein are pushed to the other. The surgeon goes in to the C-spine and removes the herniated disc as well as compressive bone spurs or disc fragments. The neurosurgeon or orthopedic surgeon then measures the empty disc space and seeks a corresponding graft size to restore the disc space height. A bone graft is then tapped in and, as was my case and that of Manning, a small titanium plate is screwed into the vertebrae. This part of the surgery is performed in order to ensure stability and to promote bone growth and fusion.

One article I read about Manning indicated that his bone graft would be harvested from the iliac crest, the top outer portion of the hip. The graft may also be from that of a dead person. Since there are no blood vessels to intertwine, rejection is not a problem. Pain is a problem though. This same article I read made it sound as if the hip harvest is rare. It may be on the decline. I have no idea. But the incision and removal of bone from the hip is generally known as the most painful aspect of the surgery. I know my hip hurt for a couple of months. Although I won’t lie, when I awoke in recovery after the three-hour operation my neck hurt like that “10” in the pain scale doctors and nurses ask patients about. The recovery room nurse explained that the cornucopia of pain medicine I had been taking had delayed the effect of the super duper meds they had given me for post-op pain. Sure enough, after about 10 minutes of agony, it could have been two minutes for all I know, whatever they gave me kicked in and I felt normal again. Not fogged by pain pills just normal. That didn’t last, of course.

The surgery took me from work for two weeks and I worked half days on week three. I’d say I had recovered fully in about four-to-six weeks. I am no Peyton Manning so there is no telling how long it would take the great Indy quarterback to fully recover. All patients recuperate differently although certain motion ranges that Manning might need on the playing field could be limited. I am not saying they are or will be. I only base this statement on a small range-of-motion issue with my neck. This and other questions surface with regard to Manning’s immediate and long-range future as a quarterback.

Although my doctor said I could do anything I could do before I had surgery, I found this was not exactly the case. It was actually total bulls**t. I wouldn’t dare try to play either racquetball or volleyball as I had before. I did take up walking and hiking until a lower back problem cut that to shreds about a year ago. I also have had additional cervical spine problems. I have a herniated cervical disc that doctors will not operate on unless some kind of life-threatening issue surfaces. The trouble, they say, is there is not enough room to work since I have had both a posterior cervical laminectomy and the ACDF. The excruciating pain from the disc and related issues caused me a wide range of problems not the least being I must take the highly addictive methadone for pain control.

On the other hand, the surgery did fix my neurological problems which included an arm that had almost gone totally numb.

Having had this surgery, I could imagine that Manning taking a very substantial jolt from a linebacker who is 6’5″-280 lbs. could cause several different problems insofar as his C-spine is concerned. Some of these concerns of which I note can be particularly grave. But Manning, being the very sharp person that he is, has most likely had all of the “what ifs” laid out for him.

I could see Peyton Manning returning to the Colts. After Sunday’s loss to Houston, it’s obvious Indianapolis really needs him. But I could also envision his going out on the top of his game with retirement. Whatever goals he might have set for himself in professional football certainly are not worth the possibilities he could face now that he has had fusion surgery. The risks in pro football are just too great. I wish him well.

We’re talking sports today. Why? Because I said so.

Sometimes, I just get sucked into some sports stories. I don’t particularly care for celebrity gossip — who Jennifer Anniston is dating or what kind of knuckle-headed pronouncement was made by Charlie Sheen is not for me — so I guess politics and an interesting sports story are my kind of mini-fanaticism.

Two stories in particular have interested me within the last 24-to-48 hours. One is a controversy created by Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson concerning star draftee Cam Newton and whether the quarterback should have tattoos or piercings. The other story brings to surface the repercussions from the May neck surgery of Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. In this story, Kerry Collins, coincidentally the first ever draft pick of the Carolina Panthers, comes out of retirement to fill in as the Indianapolis quarterback while one of the NFL’s best players recovers.

Let’s start with Newton. He is black. He won the 2010 Heisman Trophy and led Auburn to the 2011 National Championship. Newton likewise won the Manning Award which honors the quarterback judged by the Sugar Bowl Committee to be the nation’s best in that position. Talk about your kismet, a word which I have been forced by this post to grab from the thesaurus. It is named after former Ole Miss and New Orleans Saints QB Archie Manning as well as his sons Peyton and Eli, the latter if you are unaware is the New York Giants quarterback.

All of the acclaim heaped on Newton in 2010 also came amid allegations that his father engaged in a “pay to play” scheme while the future Auburn star played at Blinn College, a junior college in Brenham, Texas. (Where one of my brothers and his wife lives. More coincidence? I think so!). Newton (where have I heard that name before?) was taken as this year’s first NFL draft pick by Carolina.

With all that out of the way, I now can elaborate what the latest controversy involving Newton is all about which is, as I said earlier, tattoos and piercings. Or, if you wish, the lack of those cultural “art” adornments.

Panthers owner Richardson, was a 13th round draft pick in 1958 by the Baltimore Colts (the team was moved to Indianapolis.) Happenstance by chance? Hey, all these coincidences keep surfacing as I write. Richardson was the founder and is majority owner of the Charlotte, N.C.-based pro team. In the context of how this story develops he could perhaps be seen as a “cracker” or a “rich old white dude.”

In an interview with Charlie Rose — like I am supposed to know him — Richardson said that when Newton and Richardson discussed the job of quarterback he told the young, black star to stay free of tattoos and piercings. The story really should be told in context so hopefully the one to which I linked above will suffice.

Somehow tattoos and piercings are culturally relevant to black people. I’m not sure how that works. I’m serious. So now keeping the, hopefully promising at an estimated $5.5 million per year, quarterback without tattoos and piercings makes Richardson look like a “cracker” or a “rich old white dude.”

Fade out. Fade into super-duper quarterback Peyton Manning — who ranks 3rd in all-time NFL passing yardage at more than 54,000 yards and behind Dan Marino and (maybe coincidence alert) Brett Favre — getting back into fighting shape after surgery on a bulging disc in the neck.

Collins, who battled alcoholism as well as having been in the past a publicly serial racial slurist or slurer, retired last month after having played for Carolina, the Saints, the Giants, the Raiders and last but not least, the Tennessee Titans. Bear in mind Archie Manning’s tenure with the Saints and that Peyton was born in New Orleans, plus the fact that Peyton and Indianapolis were waxed 31-17 by the Saints in 2009’s Super Bowl XLIV. Plus, Eli Manning is still the Giants QB.

Now Collins has once again risen like the Phoenix, or at least Brett Favre, as the Colts signed Collins to keep Petyon’s spot in the huddle warm because Manning still needs time to recover from his surgery. Signing Collins instead of putting backup quarterback Curtis Painter in the lineup has surprised a lot of folks including some who share the huddle with Manning. Star receiver Reggie Wayne is downright indignant at the thought of his teammate Painter being pushed aside.

Just a few words about these stories. A few, and if you believe that …

I have never been really big about folks telling others how they should dress or wear their hair or whether they should be pierced or tattooed or tossed like a salad. However, I joined the Navy with hair covering my shoulder blades. That hair went faster than an F/A-18 Hornet off a carrier catapult. Since that time, I have had all manners of dress codes. Some of them have been formal and precise, such as the Navy’s and that of the fire department where I worked for five years, others have been informal or just common sense.

Tattoos and piercings are not “my thing.” I have very close friends who have tattoos and piercings, some have both, some even have one or the other in what many would consider “intimate” locations. I’m not going to drop them as friends because they decided to get something drawn on their bodies with a needle or have some body part pierced.

I do care if something would happen, health-wise, to one of my friends from their bodies being multipricked and pierced. Health risks from these practices are probably not as statistically substantial as in the past. But they do carry some risk, however slight. In one specific instance I winced as an infection seemed to hang around a bit too long after a friend had her belly button pierced.

It stands to reason that if there is a chance something might harm someone from a piercing or tattoo, and if an employer invested $22 million over a four-year contract, the boss might have a legitimate reason for concern about what an employee might do to jeopardize that investment. Some jobs and sports forbid workers or players from high-risk activities such as NASCAR or motor cross racing. Or skydiving. Or trying to steal another player’s wife.

Whether Richardson’s concern about body adornments on Newton is paternal, economic or racist, I have no idea. I do believe that an employee, especially a new one who has yet to win a game or a playoff much less a Super Bowl, should exercise some amount of common sense. Throughout it all though, it seems the whole issue of race could be a figment (not pigment) of someone’s imagination. Who? Who who? Who who indeed. We certainly could use a wise old owl right now. Call Rice University. You know, Houston, the Rice Owls. Oh boy.

As for the Colts’ situation, I have genuine concern for Peyton Manning. I like him as a quarterback and as a media figure. He certainly comes off as a nice guy though hyper-competitive. But the latter is why he is one of the two best players in the league. I also have empathy for him because he has been plagued with cervical disc problems. His coaches have termed his latest surgery as “minimally invasive.” But no matter how invasive, a surgery with general anesthesia produces some chance of being “minimally lethal.” People sometimes are “put under” six feet of earth after a surgery during which they are “put under.”

One of the biggest issues surrounding the Colts signing Collins is that Indy did not seem to plan for the absence of their star QB. Why should they? I mean he never missed a game.

Well, the reason is football is a very violent sport. Enough said?

But the whole shebang, football, pro football, is about money. So in the end, it seems the people who run a team can do pretty well what they want until it affects the morale and efficiency of the team as well as it ultimately suits the greatest number of folks who shell out the bucks.

That, my friends, is how the cow ate the cabbage. And the cow was owned by Archie Manning and the cabbage was raised in a field by sharecroppers who may or may not have been Cam Newton’s ancestors and was located just outside of Baltimore where the Colts were once based and, of course, Jerry Richardson was drafted in the 13th round. I’m just saying …