NFL Media has grown to the point where it is capable of having NFL Media-on-NFL Media crime. Sort of.
Incumbent national insider Ian Rapoport and newcomer Mike Garafolo are having a bit of a hard time harmonizing their real-time Twitter reports regarding the expected absence of Texans defensive end J.J. Watt after undergoing back surgery.
Rapoport initially pegged it as a 6-8 week absence, squeezing him to be ready for Week One. Garafolo then suggested that 10 weeks could be the total recovery time.
That prompted Rapoport to note that Watt could require more than 6-8 weeks, which isn’t what was initially said.
Rapoport thereafter dumped the “6-8 week” thing entirely, calling eight weeks the “best case” scenario.
Watt suffered, according to Rapoport, a herniated disc. He felt the symptoms while working out on his own, which technically makes it a non-football injury.
Regardless of how long he’ll miss, news of Watt’s injury is the first example of the reality that, despite what anyone predicts about the coming season, injuries will happen -- and they potentially will change everything. For the Texans, their best player already has been bitten by the bug.