Perhaps it just seems this way, but it feels like the NFL has had more significant injuries than usual this season. At least one impact player — such as Jamaal Charles, Kenny Britt, or Tim Hightower — seems to go down with a season-ending injury per week. Others like Peyton Manning were not able to improve their health enough throughout the offseason to take the field. Could the lockout be to blame for what seems like a surplus of serious injuries? Chris Cooley thinks so.
Cooley had been banged up for most of the season before the Redskins placed him on injured reserve this week. Having had knee surgery in the offseason, Cooley said he thinks he would have been able to rehab more effectively had there not been a work stoppage.
“I feel 100 percent – and I’m not blaming anybody. I feel one hundred percent that I am a casualty for the season, of the lockout,” Cooley said according to the Washington Post via Pro Football Talk. “I think it was a shame that they didn’t let players who had surgery spend time with the doctors and trainers that they trust on a daily basis. I wish I could’ve. I think what I went through in July, I could’ve went through in March.”
The lockout obviously didn’t result in Cooley’s trash talking skills being dulled down, but he may have a point. Although I doubt Peyton Manning was not provided with every possible tool for rehabbing that there is, working with unfamiliar doctors could in theory hinder the rehab process. Some players even admitted they did not condition as much as they should have during the lockout, so that could certainly lead to an increase in injuries. Unfortunately, increased risk of injury is on the list of lockout consequences.
