The truth is out there. Except if we’re talking about New York Jets injury reports.
In the latest bizarre cover-up of a key player’s injury, the Jets are playing it coy about wide receiver Adonai Mitchell’s hand. He allegedly injured it when he caught a finger in a teammate’s jersey during practice, a pretty incredible bit of improbable bad luck if true.
The Jets didn’t immediately place him on injured reserve, a sign that they thought the injury was minor. They did say his finger wasn’t broken and later added that he did not undergo surgery. Head coach Aaron Glenn spoke about Mitchell as though he were facing a grand jury, declining to say whether it was a sprain or fracture. He did say “He’s progressing faster than we thought.”
Then it was revealed that Mitchell had undergone some sort of procedure on his hand, but details on the what, when and where remained classified. What we do know is that Mitchell is out of the New England Patriots game, the fourth in a row he has missed. The Jets kept him on the roster during that stretch, eating up valuable space that could have temporarily bolstered other areas.
Whatever Mitchell’s injury is, it’s yet another case of the Jets giving public statements on injuries that cloud the truth or downright misstate facts.
Take the story of star Oklahoma linebacker Carl McAdams. Drafted by the Jets in 1966, the team outbid the St. Louis Cardinals for the prized rookie. But McAdams wound up missing his entire rookie year in the NFL.
For years, the Jets’ official line was that the promising linebacker injured his ankle stepping off a curb. Years later, it came out in the Denver Post that McAdams was in a fight with a Chicago Bear.
“A little street brawl outside a bar,” said McAdams. “I did fall off the curb, but I had help. I can still feel the embarrassment.” McAdams said that “The story the Jets put out, that I was accidentally injured stepping off a curb, was done off what I told them.”
Then there’s quarterback Brett Favre.
The Jets omitted Favre’s injured throwing arm from their late-season injury reports. The NFL subsequently imposed $125,000 in combined penalties on the club, general manager Mike Tannenbaum and head coach Eric Mangini.
Tannenbaum acknowledged that Favre should have appeared on the reports; the injury was a torn biceps tendon, knowledge of which would surely have shifted the Jets game plan and odds.
Another example comes in 2006, when wide receiver Laveranues Coles was described as suffering “a little bang on the jaw” instead of a concussion.Coles played along: “Whatever (the head coach) says, that’s what it is.”
Yet another case came in 2013. Quarterback Mark Sanchez injured his throwing shoulder in the fourth quarter of a preseason game against the New York Giants. The Jets claimed he was “day-to-day.”
Sanchez actually had a torn labrum and was lost for the season after October surgery.
Those are just some of the examples from the Jets’ long, strange trip. Perhaps the Mitchell injury is minor, or perhaps it’s just the latest understatement by a Jets team that feels compelled to downplay the condition of its players.
