Dustin Keller's gruesome knee injury

@AdamSchefter: Dolphins TE Dustin Keller tore his ACL, MCL, PCL and, as if that weren't enough, dislocated his knee, per source.

Click to expand...

That just makes me sick reading it. This makes me even sicker:

A hit from Texans rookie safety D.J. Swearinger has apparently ended the season of Dolphins tight end Dustin Keller.

But Swearinger suggested that he might not have hit Keller as low as he did if not for the league’s emphasis on hits to the head.

“I was making a hit playing football,” Swearinger said, via Andrew Abramson of the Palm Beach Post. “In this league you’ve got to go low. If you go high you’re going to get a fine. . . .

Click to expand...

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/08/18/swearinger-says-rules-made-him-hit-keller-low/

The league is doing everything it can to discourage hits to the head, for obvious reasons, but I just worry that we're going to see more injuries like these as a result.

Has this happened before. This has to be hard to come back from.

Yeah, this particular injury could be blamed on the rule changes, if it is true that he actually changed his approach to this particular hit. But knee injuries are one thing (even as bad as this one), and head injuries are another. Head injuries are 10x worse. You just never know when an injury is going to occur. I'm not for any more rule changes for safety or anything, I just am telling it as it is. Personally, let the guys play. It's one thing to be safe, and one thing to eliminate all potential hazards. Football is a dangerous game, and the players know that. They are at risk of injury every day. Let them play. Or else the NFL will likely be abolished in 20 years, with a new league taking form. People will lose interest.

A knee injury can take a guy out of football for life. A head or c-spine injury can take a guy out of Life. Just sayin.

He's justifying his hit by not hitting him high, but it looked like he really didn't need to hit him in the knee's either. He will learn as soon as someone chop blocks him.

Man that's a tough injury to come back from. Hope he heals quickly and well.

Wtf does a rookie know about "In this league..." he hasn't even played one regular season game yet! ...And probably just ended a veterans career.

I don't see why Swearinger has to defend himself, I saw nothing wrong with the tackle, just a very unfortunate event.

I see nothing wrong with the guy blowing out that dudes knee, looks good to me? The second I saw the play, it was like yep this is what these rule changes are going to get us. Really if they want to punish this head to head shots that great, how about try not to do it live. Can they not review these plays and fine plays after the fact anyhow? Repeat offenders get a suspension and what not. Half the unsportsmanlike flags are bogus plays, where nobody is close to having a chance being hit.

Damn the hit looked okay to me and Sweringer apologized and looked non too happy at the least. He really tore it up that bad? How could that happen off that hit, it wasn't hard or anything?

Bobblehead":4f7vqg6x said:

He's justifying his hit by not hitting him high, but it looked like he really didn't need to hit him in the knee's either. He will learn as soon as someone chop blocks him.

Click to expand...

That's illegal Ken. And will be enforced on field and off. Unlike clean hits and you know it.

Don't like it? Then stop with the bs rules Goodell is putting in because of the lawsuit because in reality all they will do is cause a huge upswing in lower body injury.

KCHawkGirl":2bgcgr5l said:

Damn the hit looked okay to me and Sweringer apologized and looked non too happy at the least. He really tore it up that bad? How could that happen off that hit, it wasn't hard or anything?

Click to expand...

Thats what I'm saying, this dude is going to get a label of a dirty player off of one play where something went incredibly wrong. I've seen Hawks make that same exact tackle many times, I don't think that its anyones fault at all. Sucks for Keller though, hopefully with all the advances we've seen in sports injury recovery he can still have himself a career, but I can't hold this over Swearingers head at all, he was doing his job.

Throwdown":3ggkhd1g said:

KCHawkGirl":3ggkhd1g said:

Damn the hit looked okay to me and Sweringer apologized and looked non too happy at the least. He really tore it up that bad? How could that happen off that hit, it wasn't hard or anything?

Click to expand...

Thats what I'm saying, this dude is going to get a label of a dirty player off of one play where something went incredibly wrong. I've seen Hawks make that same exact tackle many times, I don't think that its anyones fault at all. Sucks for Keller though, hopefully with all the advances we've seen in sports injury recovery he can still have himself a career, but I can't hold this over Swearingers head at all, he was doing his job.

Click to expand...

Agreed.

They showed the hit on TV, and I wanted to punch out the broadcasters. Absolutely brutal the way his knee swung around. Swearinger should've been a little higher or a little lower, but mostly, it was just bad luck.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/story/_/ ... o-chargers

See what happens when you make a clean hit high... shoulder to chest, and you get fined $21,000. And remember Kam's big hit to VD? Luckily he didn't get fined, but he got flagged.

I don't blame Swearinger at all for going low. It's a no win situation for defenders now.

Go high, get fined. Go low, you're dirty. :34853_doh:

KCHawkGirl":5oaxtayv said:

He really tore it up that bad? How could that happen off that hit, it wasn't hard or anything?

Click to expand...

Knees are tricky, they can give out in the strangest ways.

IE- Bo Jackson, Bill Gramatica, etc.

Looked like a normal tackle, just an unfortunate circumstance put one guy on the cart.

absolutely brutal injury. career ending probably, and quite possibly life-altering. just about everything that could have went wrong, short of him taking his knee clean off....went wrong. whats worse is that keller "gambled" on himself and wanted to sign a 1 year deal with a team to rehabilitate his value after this last season with the Jets diminished it.

Shadowhawk":2q8s15ka said:

@AdamSchefter: Dolphins TE Dustin Keller tore his ACL, MCL, PCL and, as if that weren't enough, dislocated his knee, per source.

Click to expand...

That just makes me sick reading it.

Click to expand...

Damnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.