We’re always on the lookout for evidence of injured players whose injuries weren’t reported, primarily since so many teams like to keep injuries quiet.
Cowboys defensive tackle Jay Ratliff has provided a new twist on the whole hidden injury thing. He claims that he has had bad elbows for three years -- and that the team didn’t keep it hidden because Ratliff kept it hidden from the team.
The disclosure came in a live chat at NFL.com, via the Dallas Morning News.
“I played the last three years with bad elbows,” Ratliff said. “It was kept quiet because I never talked to anybody about it. When I told the trainers, nobody knew how serious it was until I asked them to do an X-Ray and they saw the bone spurs. . . . Today was the first day that I benched press in two years, and it felt good. No pain at all. So I am excited about that.”
If he has played with played elbows, he has played well, appearing in every game during the 2008 and 2009 seasons and 15 games in 2007. He also played in the Pro Bowl at the end of the 2009 season.
Ratliff had surgery in February on both elbows. And though we didn’t scour through every single injury report for the past three years, his name showed up only twice in 2009 -- in Week Eight and Week Nine, with a knee injury only.
Earlier this month, he said that the pain in his elbows currently is “dull,” and that it’s “only a fraction” of dealt with last season.
Do we believe that the Cowboys didn’t know about the situation? Sure we do. Just like we believe that Steve Smith broke his arm playing flag football with a bunch of kids.