Mike Thomas Injury Update. Rapoport: he may need a week or two to finally play(Mod edit) (1 Viewer)

Some of this is on Thomas, but 90% of this is on the team. Initially, I put 90% of the blame for the delay in surgery on Thomas, but the more I thought about it, the more I shifted the blame/responsibility to the team. You have a top 5 to top 10 player at his position in the league. He's injured throughout the season. You know that he likely needs surgery and that the recovery time and rehab time will be months. You "assign" a staff member to be responsible for file file follow-up with the player AND his doctors. You have the player sign a consent form that gives the team total rights to speak with and consult with his doctors. He's a $100 million man. This is not some UDFA walk on type. The Saints were VERY negligent on this. Ultimately this is the Head Coaches responsibility. He has nobody to blame but himself.
When I first started reading your post, I was ready to roll my eyes but you’re 100% correct.

I look at it slightly different, I don’t see it as 40% Saints & 60% Thomas or 30/70 or 90/10…. it’s 100%/100%

Thomas is a grown arse man and I guarantee if you tried to tell him something, he would let you know that! It’s 100% on him to be responsible and meet his obligations.

In addition, you run a billion dollar business and one of your most important assets has an issue and you don’t bother to check up and CONFIRM everything is on schedule? That’s a 100% failure on the Saints.

So yea, I’m mad at Thomas but when Payton tries to act mad at Thomas, I would ask Payton what he did to make sure this didn’t happen.
 
That will be perfectly fine as long as the NFL guarantees contracts fully at signing. You can't have it both ways where the team can cut someone at a moments notice or ask the players to restructure their contract virtually every year but the player is expected to honor the contract they signed to the letter.

NFL playing careers are short and the window to get paid is even shorter. NFL players are routinely cut with they underperform based on the value of their current contract. Why is it so unreasonable to ask for the market rate when a player outperforms their contract?

There's always a tension with NFL contracts. Big contracts have to have long lengths in order to fit them under the current salary cap. OTOH the cap grows virtually every year moving the market. A top player can easily move from #1 in salary at signing into the 20's or lower in year 5 or 6 even though they are still performing at the top of the league.

I understand that fans are all about the team. But fans need to understand that this is how players make a living. No reasonable person would ask a worker to stay in a lower paid position for the good of the company when the market is paying higher wages. So, why do we have that unrealistic expectation of athletes?

SFIAH
If you sign a contract that allows the team to cut you or restructure you, That’s on the player… If you don’t like that, don’t sign the contract. Teams cannot just “terminate a contract” unless the language in the contract allows it.

The teams is only executing the options agreed on in the contract. Try to negotiate a contract that allows the player opt out at the end of each season. Good luck!

That player option would never happen but stop blaming the team for executing options negotiated and agreed on by both parties.

I’m all for players getting every penny that can, then honor your contract/your word.
 
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Just based on my medical opinion. I'm a Registered Kinesiotherapist, CSCS, FCE (Functional Capacity Evaluator) and CPT. It's just an opinion based on cases we've seen. It's also not impossible for him to be the same guy he was. I'm just looking at the norm.
Define “norm.” Elite pro athletes with his ability to heal and the very best resources and time to dedicate to rehab?

Just saying a lot of people try to apply “norms” to athletes whose means and ability to heal far exceed the norm.
 
Define “norm.” Elite pro athletes with his ability to heal and the very best resources and time to dedicate to rehab?

Just saying a lot of people try to apply “norms” to athletes whose means and ability to heal far exceed the norm.

Not the norm for an average person. The norm for this type of injury among athletes. We mainly work with athletes and my field is strength and conditioning and functional capacity.

Just trying to say it's possible he's not the same is all. Obviously I hope his story is closer to Brees comeback. I just wish MT would have taken the medical advice back in January. He possibly thought he didn't fit into this "norm" you're talking about and thought he could fight through a complete tear.
 
Define “norm.” Elite pro athletes with his ability to heal and the very best resources and time to dedicate to rehab?

Just saying a lot of people try to apply “norms” to athletes whose means and ability to heal far exceed the norm.
I have a hard time believing that many of them have bodies that heal faster. But doing this for a living gives them access to the care and diets that they need to speed the process. I was always pigheaded but when I was researching back operations I became a very firm believer in the correlation between success and commitment to the rehab process. It was the only common denominator among the best success stories.
 
High ankle sprains are almost impossible to rehab without surgery, but not hard to repair. It just takes time. Physically he should be fine when he returns. His injury was mismanaged with lots of poor decisions. Payton was really disgusted by the way it was handled, he just shakes his head and refuses to discuss it.
Ever since Ochsner bought there way in, replacing both independent physicians acting as team doctors and renowned specialist surgeons and rehab professionals operating around the country, there have been several bad medical calls, Apparently practice and other facility naming rights take precedence over our players medical care.
 
Ever since Ochsner bought there way in, replacing both independent physicians acting as team doctors and renowned specialist surgeons and rehab professionals operating around the country, there have been several bad medical calls, Apparently practice and other facility naming rights take precedence over our players medical care.
Not sure where you are drawing this conclusion from. Players still seek specialists for their surgeries. I think you are making a huge assumption that may not be based on factual information.
 
Not sure where you are drawing this conclusion from. Players still seek specialists for their surgeries. I think you are making a huge assumption that may not be based on factual information.
Yeah, we had our fair share of questionable incidents prior to signing on with Ochsners.
 
Not sure where you are drawing this conclusion from. Players still seek specialists for their surgeries. I think you are making a huge assumption that may not be based on factual information.
Ummm maybe this.
General Manager Mickey Loomis said that the collective decision was to treat Thomas’ injury conservatively but that it became clear in June that the approach wasn’t working.

“Obviously, in hindsight, we would’ve preferred the surgery to be earlier but it wasn’t, so it is what it is,” Loomis said, via Katherine Terrell of TheAthletic.com.

Don't have time to pull up the Drew, Alvin, OL etc, playing hurt, slow rehab situations but that Google thing is a great tool
 
The report said a couple of weeks which means we may not see him to mid Nov. Just have to wait to see. I will be find w/ this as long as he is fully healed and ready to go. Even tho the first game he plays will prob be him adjusting or readjusting to the game, the man hasn't played in a long time.
 

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