Bills' player temporarily paralyzed as injuries rise to a dangerously new level
Football can be a brutal sport to watch. It's great and amazing but it gets scary. It's beautiful and genius but also dangerous. For the average NFL fan, it's easy to overlook that aspect of the game until another injury takes place on the field. Then the teams line up for the next down and […]
Football can be a brutal sport to watch. It's great and amazing but it gets scary. It's beautiful and genius but also dangerous. For the average NFL fan, it's easy to overlook that aspect of the game until another injury takes place on the field.
Then the teams line up for the next down and mostly, we move on. That's tough but we football fans are all guilty of it.
This brings us to Buffalo Bills wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie, who suffered a concussion during last weekend's win over the Baltimore Ravens. The scene was scary for those watching the game but McKenzie's recent comments make it even more so.
In the Go Long Podcast, the Bills' standout who has positioned himself as a starter in Ken Dorsey's offense opened up about his injury.
"I wasn't out, though. I was on the ground, I was stuck there. I couldn't move," said McKenzie. "I could speak, I was like 'hey I can't move."
As nonchalant as the wide receiver from Buffalo sounds about the whole thing, that sounds terrifying. At least for a simple mortal like the guy typing these words right now. I don't know about you, but I'd get scared as heck if I couldn't move after a hard hit.
"I think that was the hardest hit I’ve ever gotten. That was the hardest one. Because I couldn’t move. So that has to be the hardest one."
You can watch the full show with McKenzie in the clip below.
All of this hasn't stopped him from getting back to Bills' practice this week. On Thursday, he returned to the field in a red non-contact jersey. His status for Sunday's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers remains up in the air.
To sum things up, McKenzie took a hit that literally kept him from moving. Four days later, he returned to practice and has a shot at clearing the concussion protocol in time to play on Sunday for Buffalo.
I'm a sportswriter and not a medic. But hey, maybe all these doctors up in arms about the handling of concussions have a point, right? I'm not saying the Bills are handling this incorrectly, let me be clear. But as football fans, it wouldn't hurt us to be a little bit more open-minded when hearing the arguments.
"It comes with the territory," said McKenzie. "It comes with the sport. You've got to be fine with it."
Isn't that the problem, though?
Featured image via Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
