James Andrews and Lyles Cain Speak About Cyrus Kouandjio's Knee Problem(s)
- Thread starter RTR91
- Start date
Its been said before that some teams do/say/report things like this in the hope that they can get said player at a lower spot in the draft.
Yep. Happens a lot; there was a lot of talk on espn about the famous Leaf/Manning debate. One person said Leaf intentionally did things to avoid going to Indy.
Dr Andrews has now staked his professional reputation to this. I suspect that he did so to protect his reputation since his practice performed the procedure more than to help CK, though it certainly does the later. Remember, the NFL reports said that the condition was the result of a failed knee procedure.
I get the business side of this - better player for less money at a lower pick.
But it's pretty crappy that teams would mess with a kids financial future, especially given the short length of most NFL careers.
It's not the first time. Once cartilage is damaged, it leads to more damage later on. I just got the stitches out from my latest meniscus trim yesterday. My doc showed me the bad news pix. Cartilage damage is what leads to a lot of NFL players having knee replacements later on...
All of the Combine talk of a "failed" surgery at Alabama just reeked of fiction. How did the surgery "fail" when he was back on the field eight months later and never missed a practice or game during the next two years? I think that was likely something put out by organizations with mid-to-lower first round draft picks hoping to cause Kouandjio to slide down to them.
That said, I'll admit that I still think it's very hard not to be concerned about the condition of his knees, given his ACL tear on a glorified non-contact play, and given the issues that his brother has had in both knees. A skeptic -- and any good evaluator must be exactly that -- would say that there may be genetic issues which have reduced the quality of the internal knee structures.
That said, I'll admit that I still think it's very hard not to be concerned about the condition of his knees, given his ACL tear on a glorified non-contact play, and given the issues that his brother has had in both knees. A skeptic -- and any good evaluator must be exactly that -- would say that there may be genetic issues which have reduced the quality of the internal knee structures.
Most non-contact ACLs involve an abnormal femoral arch. (I know I've lectured on it before - feel free to skip the post.) Rather than a nice rounded Roman arch (viewed from behind) for the ACL/PCL to pass through, the arch looks like a keyhole. This leads to the ACL getting "pinched" between the femur and tibia and tears it. It does run in families...
That's it. Cartilage is just like tread on the tires, once its gone, it's gone, and it's never coming back barring some real breakthroughs in medicine. What we have in microfracture surgery and platelet-rich plasma therapy are making some progress, but there is still a very long way to go in this respect.
The good news on Kouandjio, I guess, is that Andrews and Cain are basically saying that the cartilage loss he has now is common for players of his age and playing background. Kind of disheartening to think that's already an issue with 20-21 college football players, but I'm afraid that's the case. Again, though, I would be more concerned with the overall internal structures than I would with the loss of cartilage to date.
That was the problem with the Croyles, IIRC, among many others.
Personally, when I see someone have a blown out knee due to some traumatic blow (like Fowler, for example), I don't have much in the way of concern long-term, aside from the after-effects of the particular injury itself, because those types of injuries are inevitable and really unavoidable when they happen, regardless of the overall health of the player. When you start seeing guys just drop for no reason, though, alarm bells go off for me. That's just not something that should happen with otherwise structurally sound knees.
I've posted this before, but, when I started going to my present rheumatologist, he was walking around with an unrepaired ACL. I lectured him a bit about the acceleration of arthritis that causes. I even suggested my surgeon. To my surprise, when I went to him last year, he'd had it repaired. I mentioned it to my surgeon and he said that he had done it. Then he added that he had done the doctor's son and daughter also (probably a HIPAA violation). I just commented "Keyhole arch?" He just said "Yep."
Doctor Lyles Cain performed my ACL surgery 4 years ago. He and his team are exceptional. Bama is fortunate to have him.
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