Ian Williams injury further proof NFL has to start protecting linemen | The MMQB with Peter King
As Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski nears a return after offseason back surgery, I hope he’s getting good advice. He is one of the league’s best players and, if healthy, he could go down as the best all-around tight end to play the game. Gronkowski is that good. He is still just 24 years old, with most of his career in front of him. But after two surgeries in four years, his back is a ticking time bomb if not fully healed. It’s why several teams took him off the draft board in 2010—even before the second procedure. I’m always leery about the medical decisions made on a player’s return to action, and that’s not specific to the Patriots. There’s too much conflict of interest. The team wants the player back (the Patriots are in desperate need of even viable targets), and a player always wants to play—especially someone like Gronkowski—so there aren’t many checks and balances. Already from Gronkowski we’ve seen him “play”—he was that compromised—on a badly injured ankle in the Super Bowl, and re-break his arm last season.
I don’t have a whole lot of confidence Gronkowski’s family would hold him back if he wasn’t quite ready; his father and brothers were all athletes. Agent Drew Rosenhaus has a very good relationship with Bill Belichick, and likes it that way. And Patriots team doctor Thomas Gill, who was not retained by the Red Sox after the 2011 season, recently had a grievance filed against him by the NFLPA. ESPNBoston.com reported the union found evidence that may show Gill did not act in the best interest of former defensive tackle Jonathan Fanene (though it can’t be discounted that the grievance was just a recourse for the Patriots going after Fanene’s signing bonus). My question is this: who’s definitely looking out for Gronkowski’s best interest? That question is why I’m a proponent of players being handled by independent doctors, who solely decide when a player can return. Doubt that will ever happen, but it would be nice to have total confidence Gronkowski is receiving the best objective advice possible, because his long-term health is more important than this season.