Quote:
Originally Posted by pseto
Not that I drink the Shanahan kool-aid, but no coach is going to pull his star player in that scenario. If that's the case, you can eliminate more than half of sports history of players playing hurt. Last year when Jay Cutler had a similar injury, he took himself out of the game, as was CRUCIFIED by everyone (and he will never live it down, especially among teammates/players).
Professional sports is totally different than what rational thinking says should be the right thing to do. Players coming back from torn ACLs is normal news nowadays (Adrian Peterson is a prime example) and there are very few career-ending injuries (in the mind of athletes/coaches/GMs). It's only normal, rational people like us mere mortals who know how the world of sports should work if we were made King for the Day  |
I disagree that NO coach is going to pull his player in that situation. Shanahan made the call to play an injured RG3 rather than put a healthy Cousins in. I do agree that most coaches would probably have let him go back into the game, but after 1 or 2 series of ineffective drives, it's time to take a step back, get him out to preserve the future, and get Cousins in. It's not like Cousins is some scrub - the kid led the Skins to victory on more than one occasion this season. There was still the opportunity to win with him in.
You can't even use Adrian Peterson as an example, because he's a robot. ACL injuries are serious and this would be RG3's second ACL injury. Would you rather have a star player who can barely run and complete passes, or a healthy backup who has some game as well?