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 by /zn/
5 years 10 months ago
 Total posts:   6943  
 Joined:  Jun 28 2015
United States of America   Maine
Hall of Fame

aeneas1 wrote:the hall of fame is filled with guys who had joint surgery, and by extension an "arthritic component", 95% of hall of famers played into their 30s, while 78% of halll of fame rb played into their 30s.


Did they have flare-ups that sidelined them with pain and swelling? Which is a tendency of osteoarthritis. If that doesn't happen then being mildly arthritic is never an issue, at least in terms of playing football. If that does happen with the player in question, then it is something that has to be managed...and even then they can still play.

McVay has directly said TG is having a great summer, with no setbacks. But what would a setback BE? Obviously that flare-up thing...which is the real issue.

 by aeneas1
5 years 10 months ago
 Total posts:   16894  
 Joined:  Sep 13 2015
United States of America   Norcal
Hall of Fame

/zn/ wrote:Did they have flare-ups that sidelined them with pain and swelling?

from what i understand no pro football hall of famer who suffered a joint injury ever had to come out of a game, miss a game, or miss practice due to pain, swelling, or inflammation, in fact i think that's what made them hall of famers.

in other news, your constant webmd parroting became old months ago, now it's just trolling, forum members get what's going on.

 by dieterbrock
5 years 10 months ago
 Total posts:   11512  
 Joined:  Mar 31 2015
United States of America   New Jersey
Hall of Fame

After Fisher took Gurley off the shelf in his rookie year, TG started 57 games straight. Any other RB in the league able to say something like that?
It’s like moths to a flame. Negative news always sells

 by max
5 years 10 months ago
 Total posts:   5714  
 Joined:  Jun 01 2015
United States of America   Sarasota, FL
Hall of Fame

dieterbrock wrote:After Fisher took Gurley off the shelf in his rookie year, TG started 57 games straight. Any other RB in the league able to say something like that?
It’s like moths to a flame. Negative news always sells


And what many people disregard is how overworked Gurley was in the first half of 2018. I showed it graphically, but it didn’t seem to register with people who keep harping on how his arthritic knee flared up and that’s the big discriminator.

What needs to be considered is that Gurley got banged up badly in the opener against Oakland. But he continued to get 201 touches in the first 8 games, more than 30 more than the next highest player. That was a recipe for breaking down ANY RB, not just a guy with an arthritic component.

 by /zn/
5 years 10 months ago
 Total posts:   6943  
 Joined:  Jun 28 2015
United States of America   Maine
Hall of Fame

max wrote:And what many people disregard is how overworked Gurley was in the first half of 2018. I showed it graphically, but it didn’t seem to register with people who keep harping on how his arthritic knee flared up and that’s the big discriminator.

What needs to be considered is that Gurley got banged up badly in the opener against Oakland. But he continued to get 201 touches in the first 8 games, more than 30 more than the next highest player. That was a recipe for breaking down ANY RB, not just a guy with an arthritic component.


Here's the thing though. He has an arthritic knee. He was overused. His knee flared up--as arthritic knees can.

And we're supposed to see those 3 things as unrelated?

Coincidentally, an arthritic knee flares up, in a way arthritic knees can, and that was due either to hits in the Phil game or overuse or both---and both can cause an arthritic knee to flare up---BUT that has nothing to do with arthritis in a surgical knee?

I promise you, no one who sees those things as inevitably related is neglecting anything Max. For example it is noteworthy that the way to handle this and reduce episodes where the knee flares up is not only targetted training (strengthening muscles around the knee. among other things) but also load management. The number of carries is naturally and of course directly related to all of this.

 by max
5 years 10 months ago
 Total posts:   5714  
 Joined:  Jun 01 2015
United States of America   Sarasota, FL
Hall of Fame

/zn/ wrote:Here's the thing though. He has an arthritic knee. He was overused. His knee flared up--as arthritic knees can.

And we're supposed to see those 3 things as unrelated?

Coincidentally, an arthritic knee flares up, in a way arthritic knees can, and that was due either to hits in the Phil game or overuse or both---and both can cause an arthritic knee to flare up---BUT that has nothing to do with arthritis in a surgical knee?

I promise you, no one who sees those things as inevitably related is neglecting anything Max. For example it is noteworthy that the way to handle this and reduce episodes where the knee flares up is not only targetted training (strengthening muscles around the knee. among other things) but also load management. The number of carries is naturally and of course directly related to all of this.


The guy was way overused after banging up his knee so badly in week 1 that he (sarcastically) said he wanted to give the Rams their money back. So what happens? He touches the ball 201 times in the first 8 weeks. Its reasonable to assume that he was playing hurt the whole time. This is the same guy who played with 2 sprained ankles in HS and never complained.

How many RB have had that happen to them? Got hurt in week one and then got overworked the next 7 games? This is all about context. Its like they took a sledge hammer to his knee and it swelled up and people are screaming ARTHRITIS!!!

I'm just not getting locked into the arthritis thing. My bet is that unless he gets an unlucky injury, Gurley will play well all year, with a normal workload, and none of this flare up stuff will be an issue.

 by /zn/
5 years 10 months ago
 Total posts:   6943  
 Joined:  Jun 28 2015
United States of America   Maine
Hall of Fame

max wrote:The guy was way overused after banging up his knee so badly in week 1 that he (sarcastically) said he wanted to give the Rams their money back. So what happens? He touches the ball 201 times in the first 8 weeks. Its reasonable to assume that he was playing hurt the whole time. This is the same guy who played with 2 sprained ankles in HS and never complained.

How many RB have had that happen to them? Got hurt in week one and then got overworked the next 7 games? This is all about context. Its like they took a sledge hammer to his knee and it swelled up and people are screaming ARTHRITIS!!!

I'm just not getting locked into the arthritis thing. My bet is that unless he gets an unlucky injury, Gurley will play well all year, with a normal workload, and none of this flare up stuff will be an issue.


That's one scenario/theory.

Another--which I subscribe to, and which I think accounts for everything--is that he has an arthritic knee and did in 2018 and probably before. It flared up in game 1, and as happens with flare-ups like that, calmed down by game 3. He then ran well (the underlying arthritic knee still there but not hampering him) until a combination of getting banged up in the PHil game and excessive use caused it to flare up again.

So the plan in 2019 is to avoid those flare-ups by emphasizing training plus load management.

You can run with an arthritic knee if you do not aggravate things and get the kind of flare-up we saw in Sept and December. In between flare-ups he is fine, which is unsurprising---again you can run with an arthritic knee provided you don't end up in a pain/swelling flare-up episode.

They are betting that load management handles that. And it can, that's not naive idealism.

Gaines straight-out said he has an arthritic knee, and he said that about a back who got sidelined with that flare-up episode in December. I don't think those things are unrelated.

So that's the scenario/theory I think explains the most about all this.

 by aeneas1
5 years 10 months ago
 Total posts:   16894  
 Joined:  Sep 13 2015
United States of America   Norcal
Hall of Fame

/zn/ wrote:Gaines straight-out said he has an arthritic knee...

no, gaines straight-out said:

"Everybody knew when Todd came out of Georgia that there would be some kind of arthritic component to his knee, which is part of every surgery whether it's a shoulder, a knee, an ankle."

 by /zn/
5 years 10 months ago
 Total posts:   6943  
 Joined:  Jun 28 2015
United States of America   Maine
Hall of Fame

aeneas1 wrote:no, gaines straight-out said:

"Everybody knew when Todd came out of Georgia that there would be some kind of arthritic component to his knee, which is part of every surgery whether it's a shoulder, a knee, an ankle."


So yes he has an arthritic knee. I get the impulse to try and spin his verbiage into a less definitive statement. But you cut through all that and, he says yes.

But in this case, it's an arthritic knee that flared-up in Decemeber. Which an arthritic knee can do (ie. flare up like that).

I link those 2 things. The way I see it, that's unavoidable.

If you see it differently than we are just subscribing to 2 different theories. But I am definitely on one side of that.

...

 by max
5 years 10 months ago
 Total posts:   5714  
 Joined:  Jun 01 2015
United States of America   Sarasota, FL
Hall of Fame

aeneas1 wrote:no, gaines straight-out said:

"Everybody knew when Todd came out of Georgia that there would be some kind of arthritic component to his knee, which is part of every surgery whether it's a shoulder, a knee, an ankle."


I'm sticking with my viewpoint which is Gurley got overworked after getting banged up pretty badly in week 1. He played through that for weeks not just week 2. I don't know if this is conclusive about any of this but it was reported that Gurley never got past 19 mph in 2018 when he was clocked at 21 mph the year before. So I think he was playing banged up all year. The guy is one tough SOB.

So while I'm ok saying he has an arthritic condition in his knee, I think that is overblown in relation to the other considerations.

I did find it interesting that McVay said we wont know how Gurley's knee will respond until the games start. Not sure what he meant by that, but it sounded weird to me.

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138 posts Jul 11 2025