There has been a lot of speculation in the past week over the correct (or incorrect) status of LaDainian Tomlinson on the Chargers' injury report before the AFC Championship game. Now, with news surfacing that Tom Brady has suffered an apparent high-ankle injury, the question over whether or not the NFL should mandate stricter enforcement governing injury reports has surfaced.
In this writer's humble opinion, an injury report naturally lends itself to inaccuracy. Reports come out days before the actual game is played, and some injuries may only take a few days to heal. The very natural of the injury report "rating system" is completely ambiguous. A "Probable" rating declares that a player has a 75% chance of playing. This measure also gives the player a 25% chance of not playing. The same ratios stand true, albeit vice versa, for a "Doubtful" status. To the betters in Vegas, 1 in 4 ain't half bad.
In all reality, every player should be handed a "Questionable" status-- 50-50 playing or not playing. Really, that's all it is. A player is either playing or not playing. Perhaps LT should have been given a 51.5% rating: he played, but only for two carries.
In ESPN's debate over the injurious injury reports, good ole Skip Bayless brought up the point that Vegas betters could possibly purchase the correct information regarding the health status of NFL players. Way to go Skip, advocate for gambling on football and give incentive for NFL officials to get involved. I would imagine a conspiracy involving NFL executives leaking injury information to Vegas bookies could only benefit one man-- Tim Donaghy. He'd pray that the attention would be removed from him.
How about this as a solution? If injury reports in the NFL are really such a hot issue, why don't the bookies place bets on the accuracy of those reports?
Gimme $250,000 that Brady plays the whole game even if he's in a wheelchair.
Injury Reports Mean Less, Las Vegas, & Bayless
Posted on: January 23, 2008 2:53 pm
Edited on: January 23, 2008 2:55 pm
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Level: Superstar Since: May 28, 2007 
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Posted on: January 30, 2008 9:09 pm
Injury Reports Mean Less, Las Vegas, & BaylessThe injurty reports mean absolutely nothing. The only way to know if a player is out is if he has a cast on his leg and he is using crutches. A player is listed as probable and he misses the next three weeks, explain that one to me. Then you have someone listed as questionable as late as Friday and they play on Sunday with no ill effects from an injury. There is no rhyme or reason to any of it. The only way to make any sense of it all is if each team has an NFL Dr. check out players and make an evaluation based on that, otherwise it will always be like it is. Of course that is probably easily manipulated too. Good post. |
