Is it safe for Thomas Davis to play in Super Bowl with a broken arm?
Should Carolina Panthers’ linebacker Thomas Davis play in the Super Bowl with a broken arm?
That’s the question many have asked since Davis vowed he’ll play in the California game Feb. 7, only two weeks after breaking a bone in his right forearm during Sunday’s NFC Championship game against the Arizona Cardinals.
Davis had surgery Monday to stabilize the fracture, and has shown up for stretching and conditioning this week at Bank of America Stadium. After practice Thursday, he told reporters he still plans to play and isn’t concerned about the risk of re-injury.
“I’m gaining my strength back in my hand and my arm and fully expect to be playing next Sunday,” Davis said.
For most of us, a broken bone takes six to 10 weeks to heal. But for professional athletes, standards are different.
“Football players probably push the envelope more than other athletes,” said Dr. Claude T. Moorman III, executive director of the Duke Sports Sciences Institute and former team doctor for the Baltimore Ravens.
“Nothing really surprises me about what these guys can live with and what they want to do, because they’re so driven,” said Moorman, who has not been involved with Davis’ or the team’s care. “.…Our job is to help them walk that fine line between achieving their goals and staying safe.”
Moorman recalled a Ravens player who broke his finger during the Super Bowl against the New York Giants in 2000. The player’s knuckle had broken through the skin. Moorman numbed the finger and prepared for a hospital transport.
But the player refused. Moorman recalled his words: “Doc, it’s the Super Bowl. Just cut it off.”
Instead, Moorman put the finger in a cast, and the player went back in the game, scoring two sacks in the second half. Moorman remembers fondly the post-game celebration with the player “holding up the Lombardy trophy with one hand and the cast on the other.”
The player later came to see Moorman at Duke for an operation on his knee. “Like a lot of those players, he’s got a lot of wear and tear on his body,” Moorman said, “but his hand healed up fine.”
Moorman acknowledged that treatment of that player’s hand “wouldn’t be conventional treatment by any standard.” But he said he understands the desire of players like him – and the Panthers’ Davis – to play through the pain.
“Who knows if he’s ever going to get the chance to play in another Super Bowl?” Moorman said. “The idea is for the player to totally understand the risk and for the medical staff to do the best they can.”
Proving their toughness
Examples abound on sports websites that hail athletes as “gutsy” if they play while injured. Here are a few:
▪ In 1979, Los Angeles Rams defensive end Jack Youngblood broke the fibula in his left leg during a playoff game. He stayed in that game and played in all the remaining playoff games, including Super Bowl XIV.
▪ In 2014, Panthers quarterback Cam Newton missed only one game after fracturing two bones in his back when the truck he was driving flipped several times on Church Street. He returned to the the lineup less than two weeks after his accident.
▪ Just last year, after losing to the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, the Seattle Seahawks revealed that safety Kam Chancellor had played the biggest game of the year with a torn medial collateral ligament in his knee.
This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Is it safe for Thomas Davis to play in Super Bowl with a broken arm?."