Ryan Shazier suffers has limited use of legs, undergoes surgery

[Kiwibrown]

7 hours ago, Broncofan said:

3. Both the location of the injury (lower back) and the position Shazier plays (ILB) factors in here.   So few injuries involve a mid-lower back spinal cord contusion - so they will likely have done other tests to see why it happened there (because most of the time, the mild version is a neck stinger, the worst is neck involvement, back involvement they need to see if there's a specific local reason why that got affected).   Shazier will need to be cleared in that respect, AND then be cleared for LB play.  I don't know any sane doc would do that until the swelling's down, the contusion is completely gone, and Shazier shows 100 percent return of function. 

4. Frankly, I don't know if a doc clears Shazier if he can't learn to tackle head up (remember his hit on Gio Bernard 2 years ago was just as dangerous - it just happened to injure Bernard worse than him, but it was another head-down, head first hit).  Obviously, that's not a certainty, but you have to be worried that Shazier can't change his stripes when it comes to his risk of tackling head-down, given his technique is a huge part of the risk with him (and others).

 

Totally Agree with you. 

I just saw he hit today and i found it odd that his thoracic or lumbar area was injured rather than c-spine. the impact was through the crown of his helmet so you would think that if injury was going to occur it would of been c-spine. 

Point 4. reflects poor on the Steelers as a browns fan I have watched them teackle often leading with the crown of their helmet rather than their shoulders. Last year there was a hit on Kessler that knocked him out when there linebacker hit him on the chin with his helmet.  year after year steelers players take cheap shot on their opponents. Last night smith schuster, hines wad invented it. James Harrison hits people illegally. there is a poor culture at the Steelers organisation of targeting opponents other players. Also there tackling with the crown of thei helmet shows a lack of concern fo their own players. Shazeir has been doing this for years and it has not been corrected. 
These crown leading hits increase impact on other players but put there own at risk. 

for shame Steelers for shame. 

Shazier is a good enough player playing clean he doesn't have to play like this to be super effective. 

[Livewire]

24 minutes ago, Kiwibrown said:

Totally Agree with you. 

I just saw he hit today and i found it odd that his thoracic or lumbar area was injured rather than c-spine. the impact was through the crown of his helmet so you would think that if injury was going to occur it would of been c-spine. 

Point 4. reflects poor on the Steelers as a browns fan I have watched them teackle often leading with the crown of their helmet rather than their shoulders. Last year there was a hit on Kessler that knocked him out when there linebacker hit him on the chin with his helmet.  year after year steelers players take cheap shot on their opponents. Last night smith schuster, hines wad invented it. James Harrison hits people illegally. there is a poor culture at the Steelers organisation of targeting opponents other players. Also there tackling with the crown of thei helmet shows a lack of concern fo their own players. Shazeir has been doing this for years and it has not been corrected. 
These crown leading hits increase impact on other players but put there own at risk. 

for shame Steelers for shame. 

Shazier is a good enough player playing clean he doesn't have to play like this to be super effective. 

Hines Ward invented that block? So I guess you just started watching football in the 2000's then?

[Pats#1]

Finally got around to watching the video....holy crap that was extremely scary and hard to see. 

 

Goes to show how much these guys risk day in day out and appreciate what they do and how justified they are in demanding millions of dollars.

 

I honestly don't know if od have the courage to come back from that.

[Kiwibrown]

32 minutes ago, 1BackInBlackFan said:

Hines Ward invented that block? So I guess you just started watching football in the 2000's then?

invented maybe the wrong word. 

he was dirty though. 

If you don't think so then you probably wouldn't recognize the odor of his crap. 

[Broncofan]

Maybe not the thread to debate Hines Ward guys.  Just saying.  We all agree it’s a terrible thing that has happened and Shazier’s head down technique a key part and leave it at that.  

[RedRider]

4 minutes ago, Broncofan said:

Maybe not the thread to debate Hines Ward guys.  Just saying.  We all agree it’s a terrible thing that has happened and Shazier’s head down technique a key part and leave it at that.  

Yeah, show some tact and don't bring Ward into this.

[Hunter2_1]

9 hours ago, Pats#1 said:

Finally got around to watching the video....holy crap that was extremely scary and hard to see. 

 

Goes to show how much these guys risk day in day out and appreciate what they do and how justified they are in demanding millions of dollars.

 

I honestly don't know if od have the courage to come back from that.

Well, he could learn to tackle correctly, TBH. That should help his confidence. I assume he will now, after this major scare. 

Never ceases to amaze me how some of these fantastic marvel-like athletes just cannot tackle properly/safely.

[tom cody]

Good to see this. Could have been a lot worse than what it was. I think they should sit him for as long as it takes to make sure he's 100%

[MOSteelers56]

3 hours ago, Hunter2_1 said:

Well, he could learn to tackle correctly, TBH. That should help his confidence. I assume he will now, after this major scare. 

Never ceases to amaze me how some of these fantastic marvel-like athletes just cannot tackle properly/safely.

That is if he plays again. 

[THE DUKE]

3 hours ago, Hunter2_1 said:

Well, he could learn to tackle correctly, TBH. That should help his confidence. I assume he will now, after this major scare. 

Never ceases to amaze me how some of these fantastic marvel-like athletes just cannot tackle properly/safely.

I coach youth football and we'll stop practice and go over the reason why you never ever put your head down whether you are blocking, tackling, or running the ball every time we see it happen.  Every time.  There is no excuse for an NFL athlete to not have their head up.

[The Gnat]

We can change the title now, unfortunately.
 

That's definitely less than ideal for any chance of a return for him, if there was much chance of that anyways.

[cddolphin]

A one statment sentence, doesn't look awesome.

[Broncofan]

31 minutes ago, The Gnat said:

We can change the title now, unfortunately.
 

That's definitely less than ideal for any chance of a return for him, if there was much chance of that anyways.

TBH, that explains more why Shazier got injured - remember that part about neck injuries being more common and this location being really uncommon?   That suggests there were either bone fragments needing to be removed (unlikely in this type of injury, that happens in MVA's or falls from height, not the compression injury you saw here in a sports contact injury), or most likely, there was vertebral misalignment that was part of the compression effect (and just guessing, but likely there before, and what predisposed him to this unfortunate injury).  

If people are wondering why this wasn't done sooner, spinal stabilization surgery isn't indicated early unless there's clear critical compression of the cord by the spinal bones (verterbrae) - what's most likely is when the clinical improvement flattened out, they looked to see if there was still compression, and seeing it still there, then it's time to operate - there's always swelling that is part of the compression/injury effect, so waiting for that to go away and re-evaluating for surgical intervention is what's commonly done.   Obviously without all the info, hard to know if this is how it went, but that's a pretty normal timeline we're seeing here.

The only reason to do this surgery is if deficits persisted and ongoing compression was noted beyond when it's due to local swelling, so this almost certainly puts an end to his career.  If the cord wasn't transected (cut/disrupted), as you usually see in high-speed accidents/falls, then there's still a lot of hope he can regain function and a normal life, albeit at a much more slower rate now.  But no one has ever returned to playing pro sports from this level of injury that I know of.    Obviously without more info it's not 100 percent, but yeah, it's not good at all. 

Hopefully we'll hear good news down the line - the real-life ray of hope is with young patients, you can often still see delayed recovery if the cord was only contused.  But this means it's a longer timeline recovery most likely..and there's also still a real risk it won't be complete.  Just way too soon to write that off with young patients.   Really hope the best for him.

[MOSteelers56]

@Broncofan so he may have had something a little off in his spine before the injury that made this type of injury more likely? 

[Livewire]