Pro football players are known for suiting up and taking the field with a litany of injuries every week, but the latest NFL craze seems to be quarterbacks proving their toughness by playing with injuries that would likely prevent you or I from making a trip to the kitchen for a sandwich.
Tony Romo played with a punctured lung and cracked ribs? Are you kidding me?
And Romo didn't just play; he led the Dallas Cowboys to back-to-back victories with those injuries.
Crazy. Impressive. Ridiculous. Amazing. Insane.
Los Angeles Times columnist Sam Farmer wrote a great piece recently about NFL quarterbacks rushing back from injuries quicker than would seem humanly possible.
Philadelphia Eagles QB Michael Vick was already on that list, even before he insisted on Wednesday that he's playing this Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, a week after a suffering a contusion on his right (non-throwing) hand that was initially diagnosed as a broken bone, and two weeks after suffering a concussion.
Neither injury has sidelined Vick for long, although he didn't finish either game in which he got hurt—Philadelphia's 35-31 loss at Atlanta on September 18 and the Eagles' 29-16 defeat against the New York Giants on September 25.
But Vick told reporters on Wednesday that he's good to go this week, despite the hand contusion, adding that "even if it was broke, I think I would have probably padded it up and went back out there.
"You got to take precaution, but this is what I love to do."
The Eagles don't have many great options beyond Vick. I like Mike Kafka's upside; the second-year quarterback from Northwestern has shown flashes of potential while filling in for Vick the past two weeks, but he's just not experienced enough yet to really take the reins. And former Pro Bowler Vince Young, who is listed at No. 2 on the depth chart, is still working his way back from a hamstring injury that has kept him sidelined so far this season.
So, given the circumstances—and their 1-2 start—it seems the Eagles need Vick on the field … healthy or not.
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