On Sunday night, after the Chargers' lackluster win over the Oakland Raiders, tight end Antonio Gates shared some personal information about the health of quarterback Philip Rivers.
"For those who don't know, he's been dealing with a rib injury," Gates said, "a very severe rib injury. So he's been toughing it out these last three, four weeks."
On Monday afternoon, the spin doctors arrived at Chargers Park.
"Philip's never missed a snap in practice," said head coach Mike McCoy. "He hasn't been in treatment with James (Collins, the Chargers Head Athletic Trainer). So I would not say it's a severe injury."
Gates also claimed his comments were taken out of context, saying he was simply referring to the overall physical and mental toughness of Philip Rivers, not making any kind of diagnosis of the quarterback's health. However, I find it difficult to see how specifically identifying a man as having a rib injury can be taken out of context.
On Monday McCoy was asked several different ways to clarify the status of Rivers' health. Here's a quick sampling of his responses.
"He has not missed a snap at practice, and he has not been getting treated for a rib injury."
"Like I just said, he has not missed a snap and he played the rest of the game, so he'll be fine."
"Like I said, he has not missed a snap. He is not getting treatment for that. We'll give you an injury report on Wednesday."
Then McCoy was asked a point-blank question: Is Philip Rivers healthy?
He paused a beat and answered, "Yes."
So, somewhere the is a disconnect. McCoy guards his players' injury information like he's a HIPAA compliance lawyer, so he must have been irked that Gates would divulge the extent of a malady. It makes sense that Gates' sudden backtracking was an edict from above.
The timing of Rivers' performance dropoff matches with what Antonio said Sunday night. A player as good as Philip Rivers who was playing as well as Philip Rivers was does not simply fall off a statistical cliff without reason. You know, like an injury. But McCoy outlined several other possibilities:
The other guys on offense.
"When you have a breakdown, a poor route, when Keenan Allen falls down in Denver, is that Philip's fault? No. When a quarterback gets pushed and throws it up over an offensive lineman and the ball takes off on him? That's going to happen."
It is admirable for McCoy to want to protect his players. However, in today's N-F-L, leaving injuries unreported is not a very good idea.
