When Packers receiver Jordy Nelson suffered a serious knee injury in Sunday’s preseason game, it intensified the already prevalent questions around the league about whether it’s time to cut back on the preseason. But one NFL player believes that there’s no point in doing that.
Lions safety Glover Quin said today that God will decide every player’s fate, and changing the NFL’s preseason schedule can’t change that.
“I hated Jordy got hurt, but in my beliefs, and the way I believe, it was -- God meant for Jordy to get hurt,” Quin said. “So if he wouldn’t have got hurt today, if he wouldn’t have played in that game, if he wouldn’t have practiced anymore, and the next time he walked on the field would have been opening day, I feel like he would have got hurt opening day. So in that sense, now they’ve got three weeks to make adjustments and prepare before opening day, as opposed to it happening opening day and now you’re in the season and now Jordy gets hurt. It happening in the preseason, you hate that it happened, but that gives them time to make adjustments and try to find something.”
Quin is entitled to believe that God decides everything that will happen on a football field, but if we follow his logic, where do we stop? Should the NFL not bother with any player safety rules because God will decide which players get hurt? Should NFL teams not bother having doctors on the sidelines because God will decide which players to heal?
Although Quin made clear that he respects Nelson and feels badly for any fellow player who gets hurt, his comments don’t make a lot of sense. The NFL has an obligation to take steps to keep players safe, and it would be wrong for the league to simply shrug off injuries as God’s will.