Imrem: Bears rival QB out, but no one is celebrating
Teddy Bridgewater suffered an old-fashioned football injury Tuesday afternoon.
Old-fashioned means something other than a concussion.
Head trauma is so devastating, both at the point of impact and as a player ages, that other injuries have been overshadowed lately.
Football always has taken the biggest, strongest and fastest among us and crumpled their bodies. Players are on average taller, heavier and more muscular now, yet the sport still turns so many of them into piles of broken bones and torn ligaments.
One of the problems just might be that football players are remarkable human specimens, with muscles upon muscles. Perhaps they're wound too tight. They're built like Buicks but so are the opponents that are running into them.
But Bridgewater, the quarterback that the Minnesota Vikings pinned so much of their 2016 hopes on, wasn't even hit.
All Bridgewater had to do to be victimized by this sport was drop back in a noncontact drill and feel his leg give out under him.
"A freaky deal," shaken Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer said.
As a big fan of body fat, my theory for a long time has been that professional athletes don't have enough of it to limit the damage.
During one practice play Bridgewater was upright and healthy. During the next play his knee suffered a "significant" injury, an ambulance carried him to a hospital and Vikings practice was canceled.
Football players are as mighty as imaginable but not mighty enough to withstand the demands of their sport.
Bridgewater's injury could be considered a plus for the Bears in the NFC North. Don't think for a minute that they and other division teams Green Bay and Detroit are celebrating.
Why not? Because what happened to Bridgewater can happened to any of their players at any moment.
The Bears already are reeling from injuries with the season opener nearly two weeks away.
The Vikings lost their quarterback, but the Bears could lose Jay Cutler in a heartbeat, and the Packers could lose Aaron Rodgers, and the Lions could lose Matthew Stafford.
You look at Bears offensive guard Kyle Long, a man-mountain at 6-feet-6, 320 pounds, and think he's indestructible. Yet he has been sidelined most of this preseason because with a bum shoulder.
The Bears aren't Super Bowl contenders even with Long but without him anchoring the offensive line would have a hard time reaching .500.
Up in Minnesota, the Vikings were Super Bowl contenders with Bridgewater but without him, no, not a chance.
"It doesn't look good right now," Zimmer said when asked whether Bridgewater might play this season.
None of this is new: Football always has been a game of planned obsolescence and players always have been considered disposable parts.
I have covered football games and football players for a half-century and it's rare to see any of the retirees walk without a limp.
The lucky ones benefit from new knees, hips and shoulders. The unlucky ones never resemble what men their age should look like.
Made you wonder why anyone would play this sport even before the concussion scare became so pronounced.
The lure of competition, camaraderie and cheering crowds must be really, really, really intoxicating.
mimrem@dailyherald.com