Over the past few months, I have tried to prepare the board for the "realistic." Again, it is my opinion from all available information afforded to me that DD was allowed to "run his knee to the ground" before it was addressed appropriately. "Play through the pain," "suck it up," "act like a man." These are all things athletes are told and are programmed to accept. However, pain especially chronic pain is always a way your body is letting you know that something is wrong........usually ongoing progressive trauma. At its first appearance there needs to be thorough evaluation. If there is even the small beginnings of a problem, i.e., a meniscal tear (the menisci only account for small perimeter areas of the knee joint surface), you don't ignore it "to finish out the season" (and remember knee problems since college unaddressed) or until you "can't take it anymore," unless you are willing to take the chance that it can extend itself to a situation that is no longer amenable to reasonable correction or "longevity." For whatever reasons, the latter was apparently allowed/encouraged and the inevitable has come to be. The menisci were no longer there to cushion protect the remaining large areas of cartilagineous knee joint surfaces, and the floating meniscus particles which were not addressed in a timely fashion further traumatically eroded these surfaces................until "bone on bone." End of story........and, unfortunately, I would be shocked if not end of career.
- could they have kept A. Smith, Morency, Taylor, and Lundy?
