Magus Ossis

Prediction: Clemson will rout aggy so thoroughly that a few of the faithful will actually express doubts about Fisher— failure to progress from last year etc. Those few will be in full getting-threads-deleted mode by Q3 of the Bama game.

This is our concern, dude. I think they may have concern about public perception that immediate transfers are either inappropriately increasing or are now normal. Of course, I could be totally wrong with NCAA disregarding factors like the school involved, whether there is a lawyer, etc, weighing each case solely on its merits (insert laugh track here).

I think he is helped should Bru prevail, but his case lowers Bru’s chances.

So aggy is recruiting kids who weren’t born last time aggy played for a conference title and whose grandparents likely weren’t born last time they won a national championship, pretend or otherwise.

The absurdity of taking college football players to South Africa does not change my opinion in the least. Why should a 20-year-old’s right to change his mind be negated due to Harbaugh’s antics?

We’ve been through some tough times. The last decade was, frankly, a 10-pound can of bitter WTF. But I can not imagine going 2700+ days between wins over OU. Our longest win streak was 8, and our longest ever losing one 6. Michigan has only won once since 2003. It’s almost surprising there are enough Wolverine fans left to fill their stadium who haven’t killed themselves.

People decide to transfer for lots of reasons. They shouldn’t have to have the special permission of some out of state committee to avoid effectively losing their livelihood in the process. What fraction of employed adults are expected to give more than 3 months notice? The way to have fewer outbound transfers is primarily to be as good a place as you pretended during recruiting season. Of course it causes potential problems. Freedom is sometimes awkward for those who’ve been depending on its absence.

Same reason they lost the CCG and didn’t get into the CFP. They were too disappointed that their body of work on the season didn’t merit an auto-championship of the $EC and concomitant CFP bid.

So you can’t block me if I refuse to look your way? Brilliant!

I could devise a model that would have a high retroactive predictive power against the spread, given some time and motivation. I think I may focus my talents first on predicting the 2014 bowl season.

Injury medical retirement. Mystery condition was affecting his play and could kill him on any given snap. Tragedy that such talent will never be seen on Sundays.

Chance of return very subjective. There is a school of thought that one should talk guys out of returning to football (as opposed for example to basketball) because they are likely to do again whatever led to the injury in the first place. From a functional standpoint, though, his prognosis would be good.

He would need to show really good bony union of his fusion on Xray. That could take 9-12 months. If he needs surgery and this drags on much longer before doing it, the chance of being back for next year’s spring ball goes down.

Short answer yes. Slightly longer answer: I think as a pro he would have more awareness of what to tell his training staff, they would get him scanned/diagnosed and in treatment sooner, and surgery would be done as soon as a reasonable trial of nonop care failed. Assuming this is a disc causing radiculopathy. That is a lot of assumption and guesswork.

I hate that for Jackson. T&P.

Stenosis means an abnormal narrowing of some opening, canal, or vessel. In this case, we are talking about some stenosis affecting either the cervical spinal cord (central) or nerve roots coming off of it. Congenital stenosis is typically central. It is usually asymptomatic and does not require restriction from any sports. It is not associated with a measurable increase in risk for catastrophic injury. Central stenosis is only a concern if there is some other superimposed risk factor suggesting permanent cord damage may occur: multiple episodes of transient quadriparesis, for example. The number of cases is still very small, but the downside is so terrible that players may be restricted for life by some doctors. Discs can bulge, tear, and squirt their inner gel-like contents in a number of shapes and sizes. This can be superimposed on underlying bony stenosis or may be the only factor. Discs can cause cord (central) and/or nerve root compression. Discs tend to heal over time, and extruded material which compresses nerves often resorbs well enough to resolve all symptoms and risks. Acquired degenerative spondylotic stenosis is quite rare in teenagers. If his problem were isolated low-risk congenital stenosis, none of this drama would be going on. If his problem is high-risk congenital stenosis (e.g., with multiple quadriparetic events), the guy holding him out is unlikely to change his mind later (though he might get a second opinion from a less risk-averse physician). If his problem is largely related to a disc injury, it may get better with time, allowing return to play. If it does not, he may have a good result with disc material removal and fusion of the bones on either side of it to each other, again potentially allowing return to play. The information dribbling out leaves something to be desired, but it currently sounds like some disc is involved. The timeline for giving non-operative care a chance will apparently run long enough that any surgery is likely to keep him off the field for 2019. Unless an official release offers more specificity, we will be left to do a lot of guessing. Every time "disc" gets mentioned, though, it is a positive sign, because that is a problem which can often be fixed and careers resumed.

This deal is basically shining a turd. Were it not for the Longhorn network, our current TV deal would leave Texas far behind Minnesota in media revenue. As cord-cutting and streaming reshape the cable money model, ESPN will be less willing and able to pay the kind of money needed for us to subsidize our conference-mates. There will likely someday be some form of premium extraction on Disney's new streaming platform-- it wouldn't surprise me to see it weaponized against cable companies on ESPN's behalf. Maximizing (1) the net marketability of our games, (2) the realization of potential revenue from said marketability, and (3) the share of the revenue going to UT should be a strategic priority. Yes. A confederation of blue-blood independents or semi-independents would be a tremendous foundation on which to build a stock of marketable games. Playing nationally recognized teams like ND, USC, and to a lesser degree Army and BYU, regularly would not be hard to supplement with meaningful regional and P5 opponents. The companies you mention are both adept and improving at monetizing eyeballs. Sadly, I agree this is unlikely to happen. Our leadership needs to look at all options, though, or we will slip down in comparative revenue as the B12 ladder atop which we are perched slowly sinks into mud. We are in better shape than the Pac, but not by enough or forever.

Rehab is unlikely to reduce his risk of a big problem, but it might help any symptoms from small problems. When there is relative stenosis (bony canal for a nerve is larger than the nerve but smaller than normal), inflammation of the surrounding tissue can more easily result in irritation of the nerve. Rehab can help with inflammation. Also, when disc injury is part of the narrowing equation, some or all of the offending disc material can resorb over time. Despite the overwhelmingly greater participation in football than riding jet skis, the latter results in ten times more blunt-trauma catastrophic head/neck injury. It seems unlikely our medical team is going to clear DGF, but I would not necessarily fault him, his parents, or the giver of a second opinion for having a different risk-tolerance threshold and putting him on the field. edit: typo corrected

It’s true. Unlike the more restrained and less prolific posters here, I offer my thoughts even without invitation.

There are a few risk factors that have been identified as putting some athletes who have stenosis at unacceptable risk for permanent paralysis. None has been released as present in DGF’s case (that I’ve read), but there is surely a reason to decide in April to hold him out in the fall. Other than certain findings on MRI (cord deformed) and Xray (spine curvature abnormal), the main risks would be stingers that get both arms at once, more than one transient episode of quadriparesis, and a history of spear tackling. If his case sits the fence on one of those criteria, the doc may have hedged and said we can see next year. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

I was surprised when it seemed to come out this spring that no MRI had been done before he was initially held out. Stenosis is not necessarily congenital, and I have seen no official word either way in DGF’s case, but I imagine that his likely is. I have heard no definitive word about 1) bilateral rather than the usual one-sided “stinger” symptoms, 2) episodes of quadriparesis, 3) cord deformation on MRI, 4) loss of the expected curvature of his cervical spine, or 5) a history of spear tackling by DGF. Any of the first three could mean he is done, and 4+5 together as well. If he’s out a year, it’s a good bet this is forever.

Yeah, a local sparring partner is good news for us.

Cervical stenosis typically means a narrow central spinal canal but is sometimes used more casually to include cervical foraminal stenosis-- narrowing of the windows through which nerve roots exit. Neither one is necessarily a contraindication for playing football. If a player has deformation of the cord itself with "signal change" inside it seen on MRI or has more than one episode of transient quadriparesis, though, he is probably done. I haven't read enough news about DGF to know whether what he has is more central or foraminal/ radiculopathic, but I think word would have gotten out had he experienced quadriparesis, and people wouldn't be sitting the fence if his MRI were that bad. The above picture shows congenital (central) stenosis which might have been an incidental finding picked up on an MRI. If it is mild, it might be no big deal. If it is severe, the surgery might be laminectomy (remove the back corner walls of the canal) and fusion. It can be made temporarily worse by disc protruding into the canal, in which case the disc is likely removed, typically with fusion as well. This picture shows a "side" (sagittal) and "bottom" (axial) view of stenosis affecting the foramen and hence the nerve root. In a young athlete, it would not be arthritis (spondylosis when in the spine) but rather disc, treated as noted above if it doesn't improve enough without surgery. Patellar tendinitis is not usually a surgical problem. Most guys who need their patellar tendon debrided (bits of unhealthy tendon trimmed out) and repaired return to play, but a good 10% never really do. Out for spring, reasonable chance to be ready for full action in fall camp.

The thinking tends to change a little (meaning we don't have a good scientific understanding yet), but the current standard is that return to play is safe a week after complete resolution of signs and symptoms of injury.

If it made it into the released information, it was a concussion. A concussion is a closed head injury ("bonk") serious enough to have symptoms but not serious enough to cause hemorrhage. If he saw stars, had headaches, or had any symptom aside from soreness at the part of his scalp where contact occurred, it was a concussion.