That Has Got to Hurt
Posted by SBG on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006 at 11:24 am
Turns out rookie punter Chris Kluwe spent the final weeks of the season punting through a far more serious injury than almost anyone knew.
Vikings athletic trainer Chuck Barta revealed Monday that Kluwe tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right (punting) knee Dec. 4 in Detroit. The injury originally was called a sprain.
Kluwe, who will undergo ACL reconstruction near the end of this month, missed the Dec. 11 game against St. Louis but returned for the final three regular-season contests. Barta gave no timetable for a recovery, saying "We'll see after surgery when it's all done."
Punting with a torn ACL. That's gotta sting.
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Sure didn't show it.
I tore my ACL playing basketball during the second game of the IM season when I was in college. I took a few games off and then played the rest of the season.
It hurt a lot at first, but after a while it won't hurt any more. The problem is that your knee becomes very unstable, so you can't do any cutting. A few times when I was playing, my knee kind of slipped out of place. On two different occasions, it slipped out and caught some of the cartage and ripped it right off of the bone. Now that hurt.
Punting or running in a straight line can easily be done without an ACL after a few weeks. As long as the punt returner doesn't get past everybody and Kluwe doesn't have to make a tackle, it shouldn't really be that bad.
I forget how the postseason awards go. Is there a Special Teams Rookie of the Year? I think Kluwe should get it, not that I've compared the alternatives.
GH --
I can believe it. A friend of mine limped around on a torn ACL for years. He played softball on it for several seasons. Funny, he couldn't hit for power even though he was a big guy. No torque in that knee.
Extending and flexing knee (as in punting) shouldn't be much worse than normal in punting, as others have stated. Indeed, my friend (who has torn both of her ACLs in the last 2 years, youch) says it's the lateral movement and twisting movements that you can't really do.
-tootie
Moss and his surgically repaired ACL echo the sentiments of those in the know. It's the cutting and lateral movement that suffers. Kluwe should be fine for next year as long as he is dedicated to rehab.