DR. ANDREWS ADDRESSES BRADY SITUATION

As ominous reports regarding the condition of Tom Brady’s left knee continue to surface, Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times has made the wise decision of going to the go-to orthopedist for pro athletes. Dr. James Andrews. Andrews was consulted by Brady’s surgeon, Dr. Neal “Riviera” ElAttrache and Andrews tells Farmer that Brady “appears to be responding to antibiotics” and that the physicians are confident that his recovery timetable hasn’t been compromised. “What I gather from talking to Neal today is that Tom’s getting better, and what has been done is getting him well,” Andrews said. “Optimistically, once you get this under control and you can save that graft and win the infection battle -- which apparently from what I gather he is winning -- once the healing process catches back up, it really doesn’t set him behind to any degree relative to the overall healing process. The main thing is to save the graft.” Andrews also explained how he became involved in the situation. “Neal called me in confidence to run this problem by me to see what I thought,” Andrews said. “We went over that, one, he should be aggressive about going back in, don’t wait on it, don’t let [the infection] continue to declare itself. Get it washed out and scope it. And I said he’d probably have to re-scope it several more times to make sure he got it under control.” Hold on a second. We always thought Andrews was from Alabama. As it turns out, maybe he’s from Kiln, Mississippi, because he seems to have acquired the same diarrhea of the mouth syndrome that afflicts one of its most famous native sons. “Neal called me in confidence,” Andrews says, and yet he’s blabbing to the Los Angeles Times? Here’s the reality, in our view. These doctors are every bit as competitive as athletes, if not even more competitive. Though Andrews said that ElAttrache is “very knowledgeable and as good a decision maker in taking care of athletic injuries -- including complications -- as anyone in the world,” we’ve got to think that, at a certain level, Andrews is miffed that the most famous surgeon in the sports world wasn’t asked to operate in the first instance on its most famous football player. And so when ElAttrache ran into a jam, who did he call? Since God was out of the office that day, ElAttrache settled for the next best entity -- Dr. Andrews. We also can’t help but wonder whether Andrews is trying to get himself in line to be the fixer, in the event that the old-new ACL has to be scrapped and the procedure re-done from scratch.