Detroit Lions wide receiver Nate Burleson returned to practice on Tuesday for the first time in over a month. Burleson has been rehabbing after breaking his arm in a pizza-related car accident, and he insists he is not going rush to come back before he is fully healed. In other words, he’s not going to pull a Robert Griffin III.
Hey, those were Burleson’s words — not mine.
“I’m not going to sit here and pull an RG3 and talk over what is common sense and that’s listen to my coaches and listen to the doctors,” Burleson said Tuesday, via the Detroit Free Press. “I want to play and that’s just me being a competitor. That doesn’t mean that my arm is ready to be out there for 60 minutes. I’m going to talk with the coaches, talk with the trainers and talk with the doctors and figure out if this week, next week or the week after is best for me.”
Over the summer, RG3 made it known publicly that he was irritated with Mike Shanahan’s decision to hold him out of all preseason games. Griffin said he felt fine, so he thought it made no sense to continue keeping him out of practices and exhibition games. That created a bit of tension between the second-year star and his coaching staff, which is what Burleson was referring to on Tuesday.
Burleson later admitted that he will probably be anxious to play on Sunday even if doctors rule him out.
“I probably will get in coach’s ear a little bit,” he said. “But I’ve been in it 11 years and I know that being smart and listening to the doctors versus having a competitive stupidity behind you is the route to go. So I’m going to be smart and listen to everybody else around me.”
In other words, he’ll pester his coach privately about wanting to play but won’t do it publicly. Although, isn’t telling us publicly that he is going to pester his coach privately the same thing as pestering his coach publicly? I’m confused…
