“Never Really Gets Right”
June 8th, 2017
Troubling info for Bucs fans.
Well, this isn’t very comforting.
Yesterday morning, as Joe is wont to do, Joe woke up, poured a big ol’ mug of Community Coffee, and after scoping out select traffic and weather babes, flipped on “PFT Live,” hosted by the creator, curator and overall guru of Pro Football Talk, the great Mike Florio, watched by intelligent folks weekday mornings on NBC Sports Network.
There, Florio had former Steelers and Jets guard Willie Colon in studio to discuss all things NFL. Colon, who won a ring with the Steelers the last time the Super Bowl was held in Tampa, was asked to offer his take on each AFC playoff team from last year and how they may do this season.
Colon was talking Texans and J.J. Watt and his back surgery when he dropped this little depressing tidbit.
“When you talk to any athlete, when it comes to your back, it is one of those things that never really gets right,” Colon said.
Now being an offensive lineman, Colon certainly knows or has known linemen who have had back injuries if not surgery. So it is not like he is pulling this out of thin air. Colon, the best Joe can tell doing some Googling, never had a major back issue.
Of course, as soon as Joe heard this from Colon, Joe immediately thought of Bucs right guard J.R. Sweezy, himself coming off surgery to repair a herniated disc.
A year after he had the mishap, both Sweezy and the Bucs are as tight-lipped about the circumstances surrounding the injury as they were last year at this time, which raises Joe’s antennae.
Joe has spoken with Sweezy personally on the record about his injury a couple of times in the past year. Sweezy, very politely, won’t answer any questions about his back other than to say he had a herniated disc and that he’s doing fine. The Bucs? Joe hasn’t seen the organization this mute on a subject since leaky, sleepy Josh Freeman went mental.
Why the secrecy? Hey, it’s in the past, right? Surgery is done. Why try to hide what and when it happened? For all Joe knows, Sweezy blew out his back while in a hot-and-heavy physical tryst with a buxom brunette on Clearwater Beach.
Joe really hopes the best for both the Bucs and Sweezy. But this shroud of mystery keeps Joe gnawing on TUMS. Once again, Joe asks when is the last time an NFL offensive lineman missed a full season after back surgery and returned to play a full season the very next year?
June 8th, 2017 at 9:17 am
At one time, players did not come back from any knee injuries either!!!! It really depends on how evasive the surgery was!!!! Was it a simple surgery that worked but a later infection happened????? We just don’t know, and will have to wait and see the guy in preseason games to see what he looks like!!!!!
Go Bucs!!!!!!!
June 8th, 2017 at 9:20 am
I’ll go with modern medical science has advanced enough to allow Sweezy to carry a big clublike stick blocking adequately going forward. That and wishful thinking.
June 8th, 2017 at 9:40 am
Just hope it’s not the old story. Somebody can always take that big stick away from you and beat the h3ll out of you with it!
June 8th, 2017 at 9:42 am
Every player on the roster…sadly including #3….could have a career ending injury at any time.
Some however coming off injury seem more at risk. And so we are all left holding our breath and crossing our fingers on Sweezy and Jack Smith.
June 8th, 2017 at 9:43 am
Found a few articles out there that seem to indicate it can go either way.
This article seems to give the impression that it’s possible he can return and perform very close to pre-injury form and probably play another 3 years on average:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4733383/
This article seems to indicate that it takes about a year to feel right enough to play, but the player may never feel 100% and their play may be impacted, as well as the length of their career:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/06/08/patriots-rob-gronkowski-can-return-from-back-surgery-but-will-same-dominant-player/s0KQ2ruAi65rCdxaIulPmM/story.html
June 8th, 2017 at 9:51 am
I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now. It’s not just Sweezy that’s seemingly unnecessarily secretive about his back, it’s been everyone. And you say there aren’t any documented cases of guys coming back after back surgery and doing well…what if it was never his back in the first place? What if it was a mental issue or something else? That might explain the secrecy AND his great recovery from his “surgery”. I could be way off, or not.
June 8th, 2017 at 9:52 am
If you’ve ever had back issues, you know that feeling better is only temporary. It’s only a matter of time before it flares up again. It could be as simple as turning wrong in bed. The Bucs would be wise to draft his replacement next whether he plays well this season or not. You are born with the perfect back and it’s only downhill from there.
June 8th, 2017 at 10:02 am
Can we really commend our organization for doing the right things on our roster and then believe they are not doing the right things with JR and his millions? Either we trust or not. I trust.
June 8th, 2017 at 10:19 am
We have depth at guard and I like that we cross train our lineman but if someone says the success of the line depends on the guy who had yet to play one snap then I would laugh a little. He’ll be fine short term but I like our guards and I’m more worked about our tackles
June 8th, 2017 at 10:34 am
Why didn’t we make this much of a deal with Akeem Spence’s back?
Spence never missed an entire season including practice, not even close.–Joe
June 8th, 2017 at 11:14 am
Surgeries at the pro levelguys are a mother. Especially for Pro athletes. Some can come back. And more than publicized don’t! Those that do, probably should retire. But they don’t. And become slaves after their playing days to painkillers. I Kid about Sweez a lot. But if his back is as bad as they say it was, I don’t see us getting a lot of milege out of him. Hitting in the NFL is no joke. I played for 2 yrs in college and my foot surgery did me in. Coach was nice enough to keep me around doin stats so I could finish up.
June 8th, 2017 at 11:20 am
There is something about this guy that is shady as hell. I have never seen an athlete cover up the circumstances of a physical injury as much as this in all my years of watching sports. You won’t say how it happened. You won’t say what his treatment was. He won’t say anything about anything. The only thing missing is name, rank, and serial number.
June 8th, 2017 at 11:40 am
No_Bucs_Given: Why didn’t we make this much of a deal with Akeem Spence’s back?
Spence never missed an entire season including practice, not even close.–Joe
If the Bucs under perform this year, poor play of the offensive line could likely be the culprit. Since Joe continues to express his opinion that our O-line was not a problem last year (even though our running game struggled, at the same time Jameis took way too many hits), this reporting gives him an easy out if they do in fact under perform this year.
June 8th, 2017 at 12:16 pm
Let’s say his back isn’t right. They have a backup plan at RG, I’m sure. Not gonna worry about something that hasn’t gone wrong yet.
June 8th, 2017 at 1:32 pm
This is probably way out there, but maybe the Bucs don’t want to disclose the exact location of the injury on his back so guys don’t take cheap shots at it in games???
June 8th, 2017 at 1:38 pm
Colon needs to read that study dome on back surgery and NFL players that disputes his anecdotes.
June 8th, 2017 at 1:53 pm
The Bucs should feel lucky if they can get 4 games out of J.R (Eazy Money) Sweezy. The Bucs has a lot of doubts about Sweezy return also, that’s why his contract was restructured.
June 8th, 2017 at 4:49 pm
Colon is a doctor?
A doctor said Sweezy is good to go.
I’ll trust that
June 11th, 2017 at 5:20 pm
Too many millones , not to believe our coaching staff and the Glazers. Our o- line should be fine, Sweezy should deliver. In Light we trust and also in Kotter.