Fogg

Well, if you believe the rumors it might be Mike Piazza. Oh, wait, did you ask who is, or who has? Sorry, bad joke, but it was just too easy. FOGG

Portis has Duckett to vulture off him now. Cadillac has Alstott, but I don't see that as a big problem this year. Gruden is so in love with Caddy that he's just about adopted him and changed his last name. I think Gruden will give some of the tough short yardage/non-goal line to Alstott, but reward Caddy with the score whenever he can. Fogg

How did it work out for you?

Keeper PPR league. My current keepers: McNabb, Cadillac, Roy Williams (we can keep 3 players but only 1 at a position). Draft order is person who picks 1st in any round doesn't pick again till the end of the next round (19 picks later). After Tiki, no top tier talent left. I have the 1st pick of the non-keepers and it looks like Tiki will be there. My next pick is the 20th. Would I be crazy to trade down to the 1.05 pick and get Reggie Wayne? My offer is to trade positions in the 1st and 2nd round in exchange for Wayne (thus I would have the 1.05 and 2.04 picks). Either Marvin Harrison or Larry Fitzgerald should be sitting there. Would it be crazy to do this and then try to pick up Harrison and wait till the 2nd round to pick up a RB2 (maybe Taylor, M Bell)? Or if I did this would I need to pick up a RB2 and then wait till round 2 for a receiver. The idea of having Wayne and Harrison is really appealing. On topic posts would be appreciated as I need to make this happen tonight. FOGG

Nothing really stands out. .500 season. Fogg

You make a good point actually. The difference here is their starting point though. The chances of recovery from surgery and success with rehab are improved with the shape you're in prior to the injury. I don't know what kind of shape you were in, but even if you were in top notch shape for the average weekend warrior type, it still is a ways off from these guys (no offense intended at all). For non-emergent orthopedic procedures, oftentimes regular joe patients will be prescribed "Pre"-hab. They start their rehab type exercises prior to the surgery to improve cardiovascular condition and to improve the muscles that will be doing the support work during recovery and "re"-hab. The typical NFL skill (and non) skill player will have great cardiovasular conditioning already and will have above average strength and coordination already. For the normal person just starting a strength routine, the first 6 weeks of gains have nothing to do with increased muscle siz. The increased strength in those first 6 comes mostly from improved motor control and coordination. These guys have that in spades already. We it ever be 100%...probably not. But high 90s isn't too shabby. Needless to say, any person who comes back to having any semblance of normal function after a major trauma did so only because they put in the hard work. Elite athlete or not. I'd say it's even harder for the average citizen because they have to worry about work, family and their next pay check. You did good Big Ten. Fogg

Took me a second....but pretty funny. Fogg

You're right. "Mobile" is certainly a better descriptor than "running". He was able to redefine his game in the way that coaches and analysts are always talking about when it comes to athletic running QBs. I think he is going to be surprising this year. I think he has better talent all the way around than last year (Chambers, McMichael, and Brown vs. ?, ?, and ?). Fogg

Culpepper's injury is all about stability. I believe he had a torn ACL, PCL and MCL. All three are stability ligaments. MCL injuries when occuring alone often won't need surgery as they have a fair to good tendency to repair themselves while the patient wears a brace and rehabs. ACL and PCL tears in the elite athlete are almost always surgical cases. Patient essentially has two choices. A graft of tissue is taken from another ligament and then is surgically fixed to replace the torn ligament (some risk of increased instability because the graft comes from the patients knee). Choice two is the donor graft (taken from a cadaver). Choice two is the preferable choice for the athlete although their are some disease risks. There's also a synthetic choice, but I don't know much about it and I've never seen it done. As I said earlier, Culpepper's injury is a stability issue. They tighten these graft ACLs and PCLs up pretty tight so sometimes a person will have stiffness in the knee, but there isn't a ton of risk of reinjury without the right circumstances. Palmer's injury was ACL, MCL and Medical Meniscus tear. They call this the "Terrible Triad". They call it that for a reason. The ACL and MCL have the same concerns as Cpep's injury but there is the addition of the meniscus. The menisucus is also involved in stability but even more so is a force transducer. When a person is walking, running or pivoting, they are placing a force through their meniscus. The tear is typically treated by shaving it down leaving as much cartilage as possible. What's worse is that the meniscus has a really miserable blood supply. I believe meniscus repairs, even in perfect situations run about a 20% rescope rate to remove further tissue. No blood = poor repair = higher rate of reinjury. If I had to choose, I'd probably take Culpepper's injury. They both will have some stiffness/stability concerns, but Palmer is probably going to have pain as an issue too and of course the risk of needing to be rescoped. Palmer's not a running QB which is good sort of, but I wouldn't want to be sitting in that pocket waiting for the blind side hit and not have the wheels to get out of there. I think Culpepper will have the freedom to be Culpepper: a mobile QB. Palmer on the other hand will take some time to get confident. Without reinjury, both will be fine in the end. Redraft: avoid Palmer. Keeper: take him and get a good back up. I don't do much in the way of post-surg rehab. I've watched several. Maybe somebody on the list is an ortho, PT, or ATC and can add a more front-line perspective on this? Hope I didn't bore all of you. Fogg

The injury is probably structurally more difficult for a RB, but psychologically more difficult for a QB. The RB knows he's going to get hit...every play. He also typically knows when. The QB has this huge blind side on every passing play. I like the way Culpepper is going about it. Granted he's had more rehab time, but getting on the field is important. He also had much more motivation to get back on the field quickly than Palmer. He knew his time in Minnesota was done. He knew he was going somewhere. He wanted to be ready and he didn't want to be in a situation where he might have to wrestle the starting position from someone else. Palmer knows what his situation is. As such, I would expect a better season from Culpepper overall given that he'll play in more games. I also think he'll do better on average in the games that he plays than Palmer will. Fogg

Either a bruised sternum or a rib cartilage sprain. Either will make a person short of breath, hence the hospital stay. A bit overkill perhaps, but it's not as if the NFL has to follow some sort of HMO rules. Fogg

If PPR, its Tiki at 4. If not PPR, then either Tiki or Portis. Nothing to date has been reported (here, TV, print, other internet) to suggest that Portis' injury is anything major. He had a subluxation, which is a self reducing dislocation. Let me put it in perspective. Have you ever know anyone who was "double jointed"? They can pop their shoulder "out" and then back in and it makes a clunking noise. That is essentially what happened. The only difference between him and the "double jointed" person is that the "double jointed" person either has a congenital or acquired ligament laxity that allows it to happen and therefore has very little pain because the stabilizing structures are too loose. Nothing I read about Portis would suggest this is the case. I'm sure it hurt quite a bit because of the way it happened, but that's nothing compared to the pain he would have had if he had fully dislocated it and needed to have it put back in. A dislocation hangs slack in the joint and would need to be reduced by the trainer or ortho on staff. Labral tears, fractures and nerve damage can happen but don't necessarily happen. For more fun facts about shoulder dislocations vs. subluxation go to http://www.medicineonline.com/encyclopedia...der-Dislocation Fogg

At the end of the press conference he also asked the Skins fans to pray for hellfire and damnation to rain down upon the Bengals. Very strange. Fogg

Unconfirmed sources say that his decision to stay at USC was made after watching the movie Van Wilder. Fogg

I believe that I read earlier that he had had surgery on the other shoulder (but that thread was deleted from the board). Unless he has some sort of joint hypermobility problem I wouldn't be too concerned. It's unlikely that he would have made it this far if he had some sort of congenital connective tissue disorder that would make him prone to dislocations. People who have multiple joints prone to dislocation are people who have serious problems. One shoulder dislocating over and over? Sure, happens alot. Bilaterally? Not really that common. More likely he just plays hard and gets injured sometimes just like lots of other players. Continue to consider him a 4 or 5 especially in non PPR leagues. This is just no big deal. Fogg