Ryan Tannehill’s shoulder injury has been a sad chapter in the history of the Miami Dolphins.
It’s not easy to say that because we’re still reading the paragraphs. The whole story has not yet been told. What is seemingly pledged as truth one day collapses under the burden of facts the next. So it should be difficult in the dense forest of this constantly changing landscape to say something is definitely amiss.
But it’s not difficult. It’s obvious.
Something is definitely amiss.
We’re still in it and already we know this is ugly.
This is where I tell you the Dolphins have had many ugly chapters during their team history, most of them coming after 1995. But typically one needs time and the ability to hear from people who were involved. Usually one needs, for lack of a better term, hindsight to understand what we were actually seeing.
We didn’t know how systematically Dave Wannstedt dismantled an otherwise good roster and team — he had an assistant coaches mutiny threatened by a good friend, Ricky Williams grew sick and tired of him, he didn’t draft Drew Brees, he wasted Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, Patrick Surtain and Sam Madison — until it was almost over. Then, just before he was fired, we were able to start filling gaps to already dispiriting stories.
We also didn’t realize what a nightmare it was with Joe Philbin until after the Bullygate scandal started. And then we found out about Philbin’s dysfunctional relationship with Jeff Ireland. And his weird quirks. And so on and so forth.
It got weird with Jimmy Johnson at the end, but we didn’t know to what degree until later. It was bad with Tony Sparano after 2010, but we didn’t know how bad until 2011. The Nick Saban thing was a mess but we didn’t really know to what degree until he was in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
All these chapters in Dolphins history make you shake your head. But when they were happening we didn’t really understand to what degree stupid was the order of the day.
We eventually will have the benefit of that broad view with this Tannehill shoulder injury chapter. But, again, I can already discern the embarrassment of it.
No embarrassment, you say?
Really? Did you notice the Dolphins are under investigation by the NFL for the manner they reported the injury last week? Is that a source of pride to anyone?
And have you paid attention to the facts as we kind of sort of know them?
On Oct. 7, in what eventually was an epic fourth-quarter collapse, this play occurred:
The end zone view ...
And then the coaches tape sideline view ....
Now, say whatever you wish about the play itself but it’s awful that it happened. I think Tannehill is a great human being and I am sorry for this turn of events.
But none of that is embarrassing. All of it is football.
Bad football, I grant you. But football.
What happened next is what’s embarrassing.
Based on the story the Dolphins are telling through coach Adam Gase — the only one reluctantly speaking publicly on the matter because the Dolphins do not allow trainers or doctors to speak, haven’t made Tannehill available, and Gase doesn’t think anyone needs to know anything -- this thing is a cluster.
How else to describe it when Tannehill obviously injured himself on that play and reported for work sore on Monday. And he got treatment and felt a little better. And on Tuesday he was still not loving life but he got treatment and felt better.
And knowing their quarterback’s throwing shoulder was sore, the Dolphins trotted him out for a full practice on Wednesday. And after he got a little worse because he was no longer resting the affected area, the team trotted him out for a full practice (the most intense throwing practice of the week) again on Thursday.
Keep in mind that one week later the Dolphins have decided the best course of treatment is to have Tannehill rest and rehab his shoulder so that he can regain his full range of motion and strength back.
But a week ago they did exactly the opposite of what they think is the right thing to do now. It’s like having a thoroughbred with a fractured leg and asking him to run.
By Friday, Tannehill was in such straits that he did much less in practice. The team already knew he had significant discomfort. The team had already gotten around to getting an MRI for Tannehill.
But he practiced some anyway, according to the injury report.
You know the rest. His condition apparently worsened to the point he couldn’t really throw the football very well during an early morning workout at Hard Rock Stadium before the Chicago Bears game. Tannehill was inactive for the game.
Fine, so this is where dumb stops, right?
Nope.
After the game, a game which the Dolphins won in amazing, wonderful, improbable fashion, Gase lost his cool in his press conference because four out of 18 questions were about Tannehill.
Like it was some surprise to him that he’d get some questions about, you know, the team’s starting quarterback missing the game.
Full disclosure: I was the guy who had the unmitigated gall to ask Adam Gase what Ryan Tannehill’s injury actually is.
What in God’s name was I thinking? Who do I think I am?
And Gase cited federal HIPAA laws for not being able to say what specifically is wrong with Tannehill’s shoulder -- be it a rotator cuff strain or whatever.
Except, get this, HIPPA laws only apply to medical professionals. Gase is more than free to tell the entire Earth what’s up with his QB’s shoulder if he wants.
Anyway, the loss of composure by the coach -- again, after a 31-28 win -- went national.
And Gase got torched for his conduct by Dan Patrick and others. That’s not the worst part.
People started speculating stuff based on that strange reaction. Some pundits and fans began speculating Tannehill had been subjected to an “elegant benching” after playing poorly at New England and Cincinnati and that Gase simply wasn’t comfortable covering it up.
Jim Rome, who has a radio show beamed into 199 cities in the United States and Canada, delivered a “burn” based on Gase’s meltdown.
Rome speculated that Gase saying “I’m over it” and talking about “him” without mentioning Tannehill by name was “aggravated talk” that actually trashed his quarterback rather than, well, me.
For the record, I don’t buy any of this. I don’t think Gase was trashing Tannehill. I don’t think Gase benched Tannehill and concocted this wild injury scenario to cover it up.
But that’s not the point. The point is in a week the Dolphins should be a feel-good story after winning an exciting game in exciting fashion with their backup quarterback, their coach is getting ripped nationally.
Their brand is no better off nationally than if they’d lost the game. It’s actually worse.
It doesn’t end there.
So on Monday Gase tells reporters Tannehill is day-to-day. He says that Tannehill could wake up a day or two later and feel great.
“He might wake up on Wednesday and feel great, and then go out and throw and feel good,” Gase said. “Then it’s going to be about how does he feel the next day.”
I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone because after talking to doctors who had to tell him Tannehill was going to be shelved for a bit, Gase came up with day-to-day?
And two days later, after the quarterback does not throw the football in practice because he’s on a rest and rehab regimen, Gase declares Tannehill out for the Detroit Lions game on Sunday.
So which is it? Did something happen? Or was the day-to-day thing bogus?
Because we just went from day-to-day to out for the week?
So I asked Gase if Tannehill suffered some sort of setback.
“No,” he said.
So what changed? I mean, other than the fact the NFL is now looking sideways at the Dolphins and is about to ask some questions.
Look, the truth is Tannehill is not likely to play the following game at Houston, either. Some within the Dolphins see the Nov. 4 game against the New York Jets as Tannehill’s more likely return date and even then there is no guarantee.
The Dolphins have myriad experts and doctors and trainers giving their opinions on Tannehill’s throwing shoulder now. The team has even involved outside opinions so it’s not just team doctors chiming in.
And everyone is giving their opinion.
(Like when everyone settled on the opinion Tannehill should not have knee surgery in 2016).
And out of all that someone finally decides, “Hey we’re saying Ryan could be better tomorrow, so let’s designate him out for a game four days from now.”
And let’s call him day to day, but internally let’s not bank on him playing that game eight days from now, either.
The optics here are bad.
And the thing is, we’re still in it.
Wait until all the sideshow facts start to leak. Which they always do.
Lordy.
This story was originally published October 18, 2018 1:23 AM.