Green Bay Packers receiver James Jones is on his offseason tour. At a stop at some charity event near Milwaukee, Jones revealed that he played the past two weeks with broken ribs.
Two of them in fact.
Jones said he suffered the breaks against Pittsburgh in week 16 and was spitting up blood the next day. However, he still made every practice and played in two games, so the Packers didn’t have to report the injury to the league.
First of all, holy hell! I’ve cracked a rib before and I can tell you it hurts like a motherfucker. And I wasn’t going out and getting hit by a bunch of guys on Sunday.
“I pride myself on being tough,” said Jones. “I broke my ribs in Pittsburgh. But I played through it, practiced through it. You know, when you practice through it, you don’t have to put it on the injury report or none of that because I’m out there at practice every day.
“Its part of the game. You’ve got to go out there.
“There’s a lot of guys out there that’s playing with injuries that people don’t know about – and then put themselves on the line for their team.”
That’s pretty admirable, but you have to wonder if the injury had anything to do with Jones’ two drops against San Francisco. If those two drops had been catches, the Packers might well be playing this week.
You also have to wonder about Jones’ overall effectiveness in those final two games. After putting up nine catches and 84 yards against Pittsburgh, Jones was limited to six for 41 (just 6.8 per catch) against Chicago and two for 20 against San Francisco.
I’m no doctor, but I’m pretty sure rib injuries don’t get better when you keep pounding on them.
We’re also somewhat surprised that the Packers usually overprotective medical staff even let Jones play. We can only speculate whether that helped or hurt the team.
However, it is refreshing to see a throwback NFL guy — someone who goes out and plays through pain like a man — for a change.