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Ryan Shazier Wants to Come Back and Play Football


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10 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

 

I guess I don't understand why being a healthy, fully functional, extremely wealthy young man shouldn't be his goal.

 

Why does the impossibility of returning to the NFL have to be the point of his rehab?  His surgeon will tell him he can't play anymore.  His rehab team should tell him as well.  It should be emphasized how incredibly lucky he will be to achieve normal movement without a lifetime of constant pain.

 

Are people really telling him "yeah, you could return to the NFL, Ryan!  Let's focus on that!"?

 

If so, they are being cruel, I think.  This isn't a matter of "dreaming" or "defying the odds".   He should be encouraged to believe that healthy life can exist without football and that should be his focus.  False hope isn't proper rehab. 

I don't understand your concern that he be forced  to face the obvious reality that he will never play football again? If his delusion helps him to stay motivated and intensely rehab then what is the harm? Surgeons and rehab teams usually know the unvarnished truth about a patient's condition but often don't brutally dash the hope of their patient when they are in a vulnerable stage facing a long and rigorous rehab. What the medical team very often does in this type of situation is tell their client let's see how this goes and take it from there. Their message would be let's concentrate on the day and see where it leads. If the patient is being unrealistic then so what? Without a doubt there will come a time where he will realize that ultimately what he is aspiring to won't materialize. And if he is not receptive to that reality it will be forced upon him when he doesn't get the medical clearance  to play. 

 

The job of the doctor and the rehab team is not to depress the patient and make his journey harder. The job of the doctor and the team is to uplift the patient and get him to the best outcome that is possible. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Mr. WEO said:

Williams was not injured like Shazier.  But i'm not sure anyone was stringing AW along. 

 

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/aaron-williams-bills-retirement/

 

He describes how he wanted to play football, got himself in fantabulous shape, 3 teams called him in 2017.  Houston even had him pick out a helmet, pads and a locker and showed him their defensive schemes.  Then their doctor told him they couldn't clear him to play.

 

You might not call it "stringing along" when a team has you pick out pads and a locker and starts showing you their x's and o's before they get the nod from medical, but it seems like a good description to me.

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I LOVE this dude's attitude.  He loves the game of football more than most that play it.  I really hope he comes back and dominates.  Would be one of the most uplifting sports stories in quite a while, IMO.  

3 hours ago, machine gun kelly said:

Nothing is worth paralysis.  He needs to call it a career and hav a good life.

 

I don't think anyone knows that he is more at risk of paralysis by coming back than a regular player is.  But I'm no doctor, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night either.  

11 hours ago, gobillsinytown said:

I think the young man deserves credit for setting a high goal for himself.  He may never achieve it but 

he'll definitely work his butt off in physical therapy, which is usually quite painful.  I would expect that down the 

line, he'll reconsider playing.  

 

But he's most definitely not stupid or selfish.  

 

Agreed.  You don't set high goals for yourself, esp. as an athlete, you will never achieve even "average" goals.  

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Gotta admire his heart but after what happened I don't think anyone would blame him if he decided to hang it up. I would if I were him. 

 

Even if he does make a full recovery I would still assume that no team physicians would clear him. He may fall into the same situation as Aaron Williams. He may fully recover and get himself in amazing shape and feel as though he can play but won't find a team that'll clear him. 

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10 hours ago, JohnC said:

I don't understand your concern that he be forced  to face the obvious reality that he will never play football again? If his delusion helps him to stay motivated and intensely rehab then what is the harm? Surgeons and rehab teams usually know the unvarnished truth about a patient's condition but often don't brutally dash the hope of their patient when they are in a vulnerable stage facing a long and rigorous rehab. What the medical team very often does in this type of situation is tell their client let's see how this goes and take it from there. Their message would be let's concentrate on the day and see where it leads. If the patient is being unrealistic then so what? Without a doubt there will come a time where he will realize that ultimately what he is aspiring to won't materialize. And if he is not receptive to that reality it will be forced upon him when he doesn't get the medical clearance  to play. 

 

The job of the doctor and the rehab team is not to depress the patient and make his journey harder. The job of the doctor and the team is to uplift the patient and get him to the best outcome that is possible. 

 

 

 

No credible rehab program would encourage a recovering spine injury patient to pursue, as a rehab goal, the very activity that nearly paralyzed him in the first place and that no doctor will clear him to do anyway.

 

That makes absolutely no sense at all.   They would do the opposite--which is to restore as full of function as possible so the patient can live as normally as possible.  That's the best outcome.

 

10 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/aaron-williams-bills-retirement/

 

He describes how he wanted to play football, got himself in fantabulous shape, 3 teams called him in 2017.  Houston even had him pick out a helmet, pads and a locker and showed him their defensive schemes.  Then their doctor told him they couldn't clear him to play.

 

You might not call it "stringing along" when a team has you pick out pads and a locker and starts showing you their x's and o's before they get the nod from medical, but it seems like a good description to me.

 

AW absolutely had to know, throughout that entire process that it was likely he would not be cleared to play by any doctor for any team.  I don't know why they put the clearance where they did in that sequence of events, but it doesn't really matter.  It could not have really come as a surprise to AW.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/20/2018 at 10:33 PM, Mr. WEO said:

 

100% healthy has nothing to do with returning to the NFL.  His goal should be 100% health, that's all.  He's financially set for life, he should be happy he isn't paralyzed permanently.

 

 

I don't think it's healthy for him to be deluded by dreams of returning to the NFL.  He needs to be redirected to being healthy in general and satisfied that he is otherwise intact.

 

 

You seem to really know what’s best for other people. What a gift!

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