There have been some key injuries in week two of the NFL season, and Rob Gronkowski's injury raises the most questions. He reminds this writer of another player who was injured a lot, failed to reach his fullest potential, but was still great at what they did. Do we remember how fantastic Bill Walton was at UCLA? Do we remember him winning a title with Dr. Jack Ramsey in Portland, or do we only remember the banged up Walton who played for the great Celtics of the 80s? Gronkowski cannot be that guy if he wants to be an all-time great player, and it would be a shame if this injury situation continued indefinitely.
How do these injuries keep happening?
Injuries happen to certain guys for no reason at all. They happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or they have a body that just does not agree with the contact required to play their sport. Walton is a very tall man, and we all have known at least one very tall person who starts to have trouble with their joints as they get older. Being an elite athlete just makes the whole process happen that much faster. Injuries are not easy to predict, and Gronkowski is simply playing the game the way he sees fit.
Could Bill have prevented his injuries?
This writer does not believe that the Players who get injured a lot are able to magically stop their injuries from happening.
Perhaps Bill Walton could have extended his career a little bit with help from modern medical advances, but we do not know that for sure. Rob Gronkowski has every advantage possible, and he still gets hurts at an alarming rate. The universe seems to make decisions for players that have nothing to do with their physical stature or the medical treatment they can receive.
Will the Patriots hold onto him?
The Patriots are notorious for letting go of players before they are supposed to fall apart, get a contract that is too big, or simply begin to decline. The Patriots have kept their team together for a number of years because they do not make decisions with the heart. They look at players as commodities, and Gronkowski could become a commodity that is not very reliable.
A guy who is injured too much wastes time and money that the team has to expend on him, and Gronkowski, while brilliant, will cause problems for the Patriots if they rely on him and he is not available. New England is trying to make the most of the final few years of Tom Brady's career, but Gronkowski is making that a difficult task indeed.
