Imrem: Another ugly injury overshadows Bears' loss

Another loss doesn't mean that much when the Bears' record is 2-8.

Unless, that is, a team loses a player the way Leonard Floyd was lost on Sunday afternoon.

The Bears rookie linebacker's head was pancaked in the fourth quarter of the Giants' 22-16 victory at MetLife Stadium.

"Neck," Bears coach John Fox said as if he were reporting a broken taillight. "He was taken to the hospital to get further evaluated."

My goodness, this is a cruel and cold and hard and brutal and nasty game.

This latest ugly injury - or hopefully just ugly looking - was just another that has become too common in football.

Floyd was last on Fox's list of players who left the game with compromised body parts … a foot here, a couple concussions there and so on here and so forth there.

Last week it was Bears offensive guard Kyle Long, a mountain of a man whose right ankle was rolled up.

Football is a manly-man's game so as Long was hauled away on a cart, he defiantly banged on the side to encourage his teammates.

In the context of this sport, Long's gesture was sort of amusing compared to what happened against the Giants.

Floyd's head crashed into the backside of Bears defensive tackle Akiem Hicks, a 6-foot-5, 336-pound immovable object.

Ugly stuff, indeed.

Suddenly, previous and subsequent game developments were rendered relatively irrelevant.

Floyd, a first-round draft choice from Georgia, was stabilized and strapped onto a board that was placed on a stretcher and rolled off the field.

After confirming that he isn't a doctor, Fox optimistically reported that "it appeared" there was movement in Floyd's extremities.

Hallelujah!

"I'm sure they'll evaluate for a concussion," Fox added.

As conditioned as NFL players are to the hazards of football, members of both teams were shaken by the sight of Floyd lying on the turf.

Yes, fans, there is crying in football.

"It's tough," Bears quarterback Jay Cutler said.

Tears didn't trickle because Floyd is an emerging star and vital to the Bears' future. An injury like that to a third-stringer would be shocking.

"When you see the injuries that are scary," Cutler said, "it puts into perspective how important every guy in the locker room is (to you)."

The game went on, of course. Somehow teammates see and suffer and then go right back to work.

"It hurts us mentally and physically … (Floyd) is a great guy," Bears linebacker Pernell McPhee said. "Our prayers go out to him. Hopefully it's nothing serious and he'll be back soon."

Floyd likely will be back as soon as he's cleared. Players are resilient. They experience terrible injuries, recover and somehow muster the resolve to return.

Fans must be just as resilient. Decreasing TV ratings notwithstanding, most of us keep coming back to the game.

Still, injuries like Floyd's do have the faithful concerned for football players and for the future of the sport itself.

So, how long can we continue to suppress that these are humans blowing up their bodies - and sometimes their brains - for our entertainment?

A good guess is quite a bit longer because it's football, we enjoy it and the game is embedded in our culture.

Yes, even though some of the worst losses aren't on the scoreboard.

mimrem@dailyherald.com