Turns Out McElroy Played With Broken Ribs
January 8th, 2010Did the Media Know, and Keep It Quiet?
by Glynn Wilson
There’s much talk on the radio and the Web about the hit that knocked Texas Quarterback Colt McCoy out of the national championship game, but very little mention of the fact that Alabama Quarterback Greg McElroy was playing with two broken ribs.
“I cracked my ribs in the third quarter against Florida,” McElroy said outside the locker room in Pasadena, according to ESPN. “Two of them — the ninth and the 10th. Left side. It’s bad. I got it numbed up before the game and it was killing me at halftime.”
Which brings up an interesting question about the relationship between the media in Alabama and the team’s need for secrecy. For two days, the ABC affiliate in Birmingham, the station with the broadcast rights to the game, ran packages asking “what if?” one of the teams’ quarterbacks were injured and had to leave the playing field.
Did the sports broadcasters in Alabama know McElroy had cracked ribs? This injury was never revealed in any news story before the game. What if they knew and kept it quiet?
McElroy certainly didn’t look like the same quarterback who went 12-for-18 for 239 yards in the SEC championship game victory over the Florida Gators in Atlanta.
He completed 6-of-11 passes for 58 yards against the Longhorns and was sacked five times. McElroy wore a flak jacket and an extra pad over his left ribcage for protection.
“For about a week and half after Florida, I couldn’t really throw at all,” McElroy said. “As I came back, they started to loosen up a little bit … It’s been pretty painful, pretty consistent for the entire bowl practice.”
One of McElroy’s good friends, junior H-back Preston Dial, said he held his breath every time that McElroy got hit.
“It’s like watching your little brother get hit,” Dial said. “You’re like, ‘Get up! Get up! You’re O.K.’ He wasn’t O.K. I know we’ve been on the couch playing Nintendo and he’s coughed and he about went to his knees.”
A spasm midway through his rehabilitation “jarred the bones loose again,” McElroy said. “I’m just glad that we got through it and we were able to do it without taking too many significant hits on the ribs. But if I had a torn ACL, I’d play in this game. I would do whatever it took to be on the field. I just had to deal with a lot of pain.”
Considering this startling revelation, perhaps that will cool the talk about “what if?” McCoy had not been injured and had been able to play.
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Tags: Alabama, BCS National Championship Game, Greg McElroy, Quarterback Colt McCoy, Texas
January 8th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
My brother Big Red Bobbitt was a fullback for Va Tech years ago (I can’t remember when it was). His jaw was broken right after the game started, paining him terribly. The team doctor looked at it, not telling Gerald that it was broken, told him to get back in the game. After the game the doctor said, “Bobbitt let’s go get your jaw wired up. Your jaw is broken.”
His upper and lower jaws were wired almost shut, and he lived on liquids for weeks.
January 9th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
It’s a dangerous business, that football…
February 9th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
A freshman quarterback took the elephants to the wire,texas was moving the ball to the goal when McCoy got hurt.Ala needs a excuse when they win as well as when they lose!