Loading ...Washington Redskin fans I can only shake my head at this. For the second year in a row safety LaRon Landry has decided not to have surgery on his often injured Achilles tendon.
I for one can understand Landry's hesitance towards that kind of surgery leads to a long road to recovery. I know because when I was in eighth grade, I had that surgery due to a torn Achilles tendon that summer.
I spent six weeks in a cast where doctors told me not to put any pressure on my right leg or else I'd tear the stitches. This alone scared the hell out of me because the pain of tearing the tendon originally was so horrific that, according to my sister, I started speaking in tongues.
After the two and half months of crutches and wheelchairs the cast finally came off to reveal a calf muscle that was half the size of its counter part on my left left (thanks atrophy). Then the real fun started, the rehab training.
Because my calf muscle on my right leg had atrophied so much I had to literally teach myself to walk again. Something that is so simple and comes completely natural to the majority of us became something so impossibly foreign to me that I wondered if I'd every walk right again.
Physical rehab wasn't a lot of fun, in fact it was a lot of stretching muscle and tendons that hadn't been used in over two months so there was a lot of pain involved. I missed out on football that fall because of the injury, but I was determined to be ready for spring baseball.
Not only did I go through the torture of the rehab but as soon as I was back to being able to walk and run normally I started training harder than I ever had before and when spring rolled around I was in far better shape then the previous year and it showed with my play on the field.
Like I said I get why Landry doesn't want to have the surgery, I've been there, but if I were in his shoes I absolutely would get the surgery and here's why.
For starters the longer he prolongs going under the knife the greater his chances become of actually tearing the tendon and again I can't even begin to describe to you the pain that tearing a tendon causes. That alone would convince me to get knocked out by the doctor and have him stitch that bad boy up for good.
Secondly, surgically repaired tendons actually become stronger than they were before. When I had my surgery (which I believe was 14 years ago) they stitched the tendon up with Teflon (a very strong and flexible metal) which the tendon would heal around. The Teflon in my tendon will hold better then my tendon alone and the new fibers that grew around are also stronger than the previous ones. If Landry elected to have the surgery chances are his injury problems with that tendon would be completely behind him.
Lastly, Landry is probably costing himself a lot of money by not having the surgery. Almost every media member in D.C. was saying that the Skins should either let Landry walk or offer him a lot less money, if he decided not to have surgery. I was listening to the Sports Reporters on ESPN980 (Andy Pollin and Steve Czaben) with their guest Washington Examiner columnist Thom Loverro when they broke the news that Landry decided not to have surgery. All three quickly said that the team needed to move on from him and they're right.
Landry is going to want to get paid this off-season and as much as I like him there is no way you can give him the amount of money he wants knowing that he's probably going to end the season in injured reserves.
In fact not having the surgery doesn't just hurt his Redskins stock but probably hurts the total amount any team in the league will give him. Sure if the Skins don't re-sign him someone will roll the dice with him but by not having the surgery and increasing his risk of injury next season he's not going to see the money that he'd like.
It's a shame Landry has decided to go with "alternative" methods of healing his Achilles and I'm also sorry that he'll probably not be with the team next year because of it. But in the end Landry is doing what he believes is best for his career and I can't fault the man for that, especially since I know what the road to recovery from that kind of surgery entails.
Tags: Football, Laron Landry, NFL, Washington, Washington RedskinsRelated Videos
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