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Ravens tight end Quinn Sypniewski hurt his knee during the team’s minicamp Friday and was carted off the field with an injury that the team fears will cause him to miss the entire 2008 season.
Aaron Wilson of the Carroll County Times reports that Sypniewski’s left knee buckled after hauling in a pass and awkwardly bumping into linebacker Antwan Barnes. Don Markus of the Baltimore Sun reports that Sypniewski had caught a pass and was trying to avoid contact with Barnes.
Whether Sypniewski actually made contact with Barnes or was hurt trying to avoid contact with Barnes, the fact is that activities in April are supposed to be non-contact. Common sense tells us that in a non-contact activity, not only should a player not awkwardly bump another player, he also shouldn’t have to make sudden movements that will cause his knee to buckle because he’s attempting to avoid contact.
If the players’ union is doing its job, it will demand to know how a player suffered a potentially season-ending injury in a non-contact activity, although players like Sypniewski often decide that it’s better for their careers to suffer silently.
April 19th, 2008 at 10:58 am
“We do not allow any contact in off-season workouts, ” *wink-wink-nudge-nudge* says Gene Upshaw.
(Apologies to Monty Python)
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April 19th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Valid point. There’s a difference between Camp Creampuff, and Camp Creamed.
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April 19th, 2008 at 11:32 am
“Contact” when referring to football practice isn’t intended to mean any touching. No one would say that handing off is barred because the quarterback makes contact with the running back, or snapping the ball because the quarterback makes fairly intimate contact with the center. Similarly, a pass coverage/receiving drill isn’t a contact drill, even if there might be incidental contact. Teams may be abusing the non-contact rules, but I don’t see this as an example of it.
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April 19th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Since when does “no contact” mean no coverage? We have all seen players hurt knees just making cuts or landing without a defender present so let’s not jump to a conclusion that the union isn’t doing its job until the facts are presented. The ones here now are thin, to say the least.
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April 19th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Seriously, have you ever witnessed even a shorts and helmets practice Florio? I appreciate the ongoing crusade to protect players in mini-camp and agree there have been/are/always will be abuses but to say that “…in a non-contact activity, not only should a player not awkwardly bump another player, he also shouldn’t have to make sudden movements that will cause his knee to buckle because he’s attempting to avoid contact…” seems to show a lack of awareness of what goes on in even the simplest football practice. Even going 1/2 or 1/4 speed, when there are 22 or even just 14 (7 on 7) guys running around collisions sometimes inevitably occur and certainly an injury could happen avoiding an accidental collision especially with players converging on a pass. While I support your position on this issue, we just don’t know what the circumstances were when this happened.
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April 19th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Anybody can blow out their knee in a non-contact drill. This news doesn’t sound like enough to indict the Ravens in violation on non-contact rules.
Have you ever played football or another sport? If you’re trying to avoid contact and step in an awkward direction and plant the wrong way, you can easily do some damage.
I hate the Ravens but this could easily be legit.
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April 19th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Is this really any surprise?
If the Ravens are running a much tougher camp then they have in the past, then IMO, it isn’t any surprise if and when injuries occur.
All the union has to do is ask the player. Isn’t that what the union is for, to be there for the players?
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April 19th, 2008 at 11:58 am
How about a player suing the NFL over such matters? Since the Union isn’t doing anything, a player should.
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April 19th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Man, this really is an issue with you.
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April 19th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Yeah, because major knee injuries never happen without contact…. right.
Mike should build an ark for all the crying about this subject.
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April 19th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I played college ball and we ran “non-contact” drills all the time in the off season. It’s just offense vs defense no equipment… but when the ball is in the air and you catch it with defenders around there will always be unwanted contact. He may have made a move, trying to keep it like a game situation and clipped the linebacker… it happens.
If the league or union doesn’t want it than they need to have guys not participate in the drills. But when you have 22 players on the field running through plays, there will always be contact and speaking from experience it’s not because the coaches initiate it.
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April 19th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Picking up on what DRock said, Barnes is one intense player. Who’s to say he didn’t just go a little too far?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cerDBOd_zlg
(Wait for the replay to see the hit Barnes put on Rocca. A hit, btw, for which he was penalized.)
It’s really impossible to say whether it was the player himself, or the coaches responsible for the contact in this instance.
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April 19th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I agree, DRock. Much too much of an outcry is made here about the sessions being “non-contact” every time an injury occurs.
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April 19th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
DRock, you hit it right on the nail. “No-contact” is another word for “touch”. You play at full speed, but tackles are considered made when you are being “touched” by a defender.
One thing is for the media and Florio to make a stir on the “non-contact” issue in the trenches, where things can get rough and out of hand. But when we are talking skill position, these unfortunate injuries is just a part of being out there preparing for the season.
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April 19th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
As an intramural referee in college, I once saw 3 guys tear their ACL in one night of flag football games.
Just because drills are non-contact doesn’t mean they are “non-effort.” When a pass is up in the air and a few 200+ pound athletes are moving full speed towards the ball, sometimes their bodies hit. And sometimes after the catch both parties need to swerve to avoid contact. It doesn’t mean that one of them was trying to initiate contact, it just means that they were both trying for the ball.
I realize that eliminating contact during the non-contact workouts is your personal crusade, but let’s take a step back and be reasonable about this. It seems like the level of contact that’s inevitable when I play touch football with my friends should be expected when you put a bunch of competitive NFL-caliber athletes on the field together. If you really expect “non-contact” to mean these guys to never touch each other, then they may as well just watch film.
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April 19th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
If anyone has ever played organised sports at any level, they would know that these sorts of accidents do happen. Until someone comes out and says Barnes levelled him rather than trying to get out of the way, i think everyone, including the amazing Florio, should take the report at face value and assume this was an accident.
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April 19th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Or, it could have been an unfortunate. As for this: “Common sense tells us that in a non-contact activity, not only should a player not awkwardly bump another player, he also shouldn’t have to make sudden movements that will cause his knee to buckle because he’s attempting to avoid contact.” … well, that’s not true. Even if an activity is non contact, injuries can absolutely occur if the workout is intense, a knee buckles, you try to avoid running into some one, etc.
Now, I still think there should probably be an investigation, but the injury doesn’t mean that the Baltimore Ravens did anything wrong.
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April 19th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
this is another dirty little league secret, like tampering. I know, maybe the NFL can punish the 49ers and everything will be better
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April 19th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Stuff like this will happen. Remember that RB for the Patriots who blew his knee playing flag football in the sand before the pro bowl? You never know when a dude is going get hurt. It’s not a wink-wink deal. It’s not a secret plan to have contact in a non-contact drill.
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April 19th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Whats up Skay???
Haven’t seen you around the Baltimore Sun Ravens Board for a while.
How’s it going?
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April 19th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
How did Bill Gramatica tear his knee up? Exactly.
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April 19th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
The only way to avoid any contact is to not have the offense and defense on the field at the same time. And hope no two offensive players get in each other’s way.
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April 19th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
GIVE IT UP! NOBODY (BUT YOU) CARES!
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April 19th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
maby he slipped on a macdonalds wraper
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April 20th, 2008 at 1:54 am
I think they should investigate the Packers practices. I could have sworn I saw some guys playing patty-cake on the bench the other day.
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