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The Elephant In The Locker Room...

By VoxMediaUser87447

"This is the kind of stuff that seems to happen to the Browns all too frequently. Sure, major pre-season injuries happen. But how often do you see a team's most talented player--and Bentley was exactly that--go down on the very first drill of training camp?
What's more distressing is the fate that apparently awaits any top draft pick or free agent coming to Cleveland. .." - Mike Desmond, Orange & Brown Report
"What happened Thursday morning at the Browns' training camp was not for the faint-hearted or thin-skinned. It was a test, yet another in a long line of tests, to gauge just how impenetrable the fans' love is for their team....

As much as we want to believe there is a jinx, a curse that dangles over the team, rational thought suggests otherwise. It's just a little difficult at this time to fight through those initial thoughts and see the bigger picture. " - Rich Passan, Orange & Brown Report

This is not a test, this is not fate, this is not a curse.  Something is WRONG.

Winslow's motorcyle accident and William Green's troubles with bongs and backstabbings were personal errors that affected their ability to play football, but the majority of these injuries are acquired on the field in practice or play.  

The bigger picture is that with such a consistent pattern of injuries one has to wonder about the conditioning and training methods the team adheres to.  These aren't minor injuries like turf toes and sprained wrists; Couch, Brown, Winslow, Miller, and now Bentley, have all been under the knife.  The surgeries and recoveries are always  very successful courtesy of the Cleveland Clinic.  These guys are all back at 100% ability when they get hurt again.    Many of these serious injuries occur early in the season, when many guys haven't been back in the weight room or on the field  for very long.   Courtney Brown spent half his career with the Browns on Injured Reserve but managed to get through almost an entire season his first turn out as a Denver Bronco.

Sure, things like this happen to every team, but with nowhere near the amount of regularity it seems to occur with the Cleveland Browns.   It's the Law of Quantity.  If one person insists you're conceited, to hell with 'em, that's their opinion...but if TEN people tell you you're conceited, you might want to re-evaluate your ego.  

I'm no doctor or trainer, so I could just be blowing smoke here, but isn't it fair to at least "look into" how you condition these young guys when they get hurt so bad so often?   Can we rule out the scientific explanation before we pin this back on the football-gods?

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