• Greg Jennings is a Study of the Cruel World of Football

    by
    Rich Gapinski
    Published on 10-26-2012 07:28 AM
    10 Comments Comments


    Family Night is usually a great thing for the NFL season and the players. It is named differently for each team, but it is that night in pre-season where the "new" version each team is showcased in front of the most excited fans in each NFL city. For Greg Jennings, it was the beginning of what will be an un-fulfilled season that comes at the worst time. Family Night will cost Greg Jennings millions of dollars.

    This season is the final year of the wide receiver's contract. On that night, Jennings tweaked his hamstring. It seemed minor at the time. No one saw him in an any significant way for about six weeks when he played during the first week of the season against the San Francisco Forty-Niners. He re-injured himself during the final plays of the game. At first, it was reported to still be his hamstring (EDIT: This is incorrect, it was reported as his groin, see correction below).

    He sat out against Chicago, but played against Seattle, reaggravating the injury. He caught his first touchdown of the season against the Saints with a nine yard catch. He came off the field. That was four weeks ago.

    Finally, the true nature of the injury came to light yesterday. Jennings will have surgery to repair his groin. Or is it his abdominal muscle? Either way, it is just another step in a year that is becoming a long season for the star receiver.

    For his contract, it can't help that the Packers still have the best quarterback rating in the league without him. It can't help that it will be hard to come back at 100% for any great amount of time before the playoffs start. He is expected to miss the next three weeks or more. I know this; I would not want to be the cornerback covering Jennings with something to prove in the playoffs; assuming Green Bay makes it.

    Ultimately, when people wonder why the players always ask for every single penny they can squeeze out of a signing bonus and a contract that can be severed at any time; this is why. Greg Jennings has been the best wide receiver on Green Bay for about 4 years running. It is unlikely he will be paid like it. The lost games this year will definitely be brought up in negotiations. He will be 30 next year.

    He may sit out the next Family Night. If you are a fan of the team he plays for then; don't hold it against him.

    Comments 10 Comments
    1. Ragar's Avatar
      Uhmm, Game notes from Packers vs. Chicago:

      "Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings was inactive with a groin injury"

      From teh Saints game

      "Packers WR Greg Jennings caught a touchdown in the second quarter but later came out of the game. Jennings has been struggling to stay healthy with a groin injury."

      The in season injury has been the groin, not the hamstring.

      On your second point, his hamstring that he hurt could have been in a normal practice during the day, as it all Family Night is a exalted practice that is used to suport "the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, to support its Wendy’s Wonderful Kids foster care adoption program in Wisconsin."

      Don't try to make it out more then it is.

      You third point is valid as all players, however as he missed three games last year as well, and only played in all 16 games 3 out of 7 years, it's a discussion worth having with any player with an injury history.
      Reply
    1. Rich Gapinski's Avatar
      Thank you for clearing up the exact injury history. The point of the article is not the injury itself but the effect it will have. Still, it's something that should have been checked.

      I'm not at all saying Family Nights shouldn't continue. Family night is simply being used as a method to set the scene of the good feelings/ bad feelings type of night it had to be for Jennings. And, yes, the injury could have happened at any time. I'm not making it any bigger than to suggest that a player may remember how he got injured when the same set of circumstances occurs in the future. It doesn't have to be Jennings, it can be any player.
      Reply
    1. Ragar's Avatar
      Quote Originally Posted by Rich Gapinski View Post

      I'm not at all saying Family Nights shouldn't continue. Family night is simply being used as a method to set the scene of the good feelings/ bad feelings type of night it had to be for Jennings. And, yes, the injury could have happened at any time. I'm not making it any bigger than to suggest that a player may remember how he got injured when the same set of circumstances occurs in the future. It doesn't have to be Jennings, it can be any player.
      It can be any player, however you choose Jennings. By using that example (so much so that you wrote 5 paragraphs on it) to attempt to "prove your agenda", you did a disservice to teh reader, not only in factual inaccuracy of your injury statement, but by attempting to paint a stroke against teh PAckers Family Night as something it is not. Without Jennings, your entire article is this line:

      "Ultimately, when people wonder why the players always ask for every single penny they can squeeze out of a signing bonus and a contract that can be severed at any time; this is why."

      Your agenda itself is valid (as I stated in teh first response), however I feel you factually used an example that was flat out wrong in every facet to prove that agenda. (in other words, good result, bad methodology)

      And I'm in a cranky enough mood on a Friday, with little sleep, you painting the PAckers as the bad guy here, and I've been without a good argument on this site that isn't about Drew Brees, or absolute statements, or general wide reaching "statements of fact" that the only good response is - "yup", that this one one thing I could specifically attack as wrong (Jennings, not the agenda). Also, I thought we had beaten this topic into the ground when Suggs got injured in the offseason workout when everyone figured out teh otherside of the new CBA and how the time off is actuallly bad for the Players from a contractual standpoint.

      Otherwise, how's your day going
      Reply
    1. Rich Gapinski's Avatar
      Packers are running a business like any other team. They are no more evil or better than any other NFL team, including the Bears. A player on your team was the big news of the day until Aaron Hernandez did not make the flight to London.

      http://www.sbnation.com/fantasy/2012...vs-rams-london

      Again, Family Night is not being painted as a bad thing, just a starting point. The methodology was not flat out wrong in every facet. I got the location of the injury incorrect. The location of the injury is not really needed for the argument; only that an injury occurred is. Jennings is used because of the timing and the fact he is in the final year of his contract. Family Night was the original occurrance of an injury; a catalyst of hinderance.

      If you are having trouble sleeping, I suggest firing up Game Rewind and watching a London Jaguars game of your choice.
      Reply
    1. Pruitt's Avatar
      You know, for every JaMarcus Russell - a guy who got rich for doing nothing in the league - there are many guys who get beat up before they can cash in.

      Without a shadow of a doubt, the NFL is the only major sports league in the world where players are underpaid.
      Reply
    1. Ragar's Avatar
      Quote Originally Posted by Rich Gapinski View Post
      Packers are running a business like any other team. They are no more evil or better than any other NFL team, including the Bears. A player on your team was the big news of the day until Aaron Hernandez did not make the flight to London.

      http://www.sbnation.com/fantasy/2012...vs-rams-london

      Again, Family Night is not being painted as a bad thing, just a starting point. The methodology was not flat out wrong in every facet. I got the location of the injury incorrect. The location of the injury is not really needed for the argument; only that an injury occurred is. Jennings is used because of the timing and the fact he is in the final year of his contract. Family Night was the original occurrance of an injury; a catalyst of hinderance.

      If you are having trouble sleeping, I suggest firing up Game Rewind and watching a London Jaguars game of your choice.
      By specifying Family Night, you are making that as something outside of the normal preseason a team could run, when it is a glorified practice run at night instead of during the day for teh fans and as a charity event for teh community. Therefore, it is a mischaracterization as something above and beyond training camp, and something that a player could choose to not do.

      So to me, your error in using it as a starting point Specific, instead of as a generic "playing football leads to possible injury at any time, so in your contract year get yours (your agenda paraphrased - btw agenda not necessarily the right word here, "article point" better words maybe? - agenda sounds more nefarious)." The reason? By using a specific in your justification, it seems to me you've applied emphasis to it as something more important rather then any football practice.

      So is your point of the article then "hold out to get yours as any practice or playing a game is bad for your health and until you get eh money, the fans should jsut suck it?"

      Ohh Jaguars games as a somnolent, should have thought of that.
      Reply
    1. Ragar's Avatar
      Quote Originally Posted by Rich Gapinski View Post
      If you are having trouble sleeping, I suggest firing up Game Rewind and watching a London Jaguars game of your choice.
      (and I did notice what you did here trying to pull a Packers jinx for this weekend, I'm on to you!!!)
      Reply
    1. Rich Gapinski's Avatar
      I'm not going to run this Family Night stuff into the ground. Players remember how and where they got injured; whether it is during working out, taking in groceries or paying a bill. That is the reason I end the article with it. From playing and suffering injuries myself, I have experience with that.

      If it happened during one of those activities above, I would have used some other angle to begin the article. The good feeling/bad feeling of it happening on Family Night is something I liked because tied into the feelings Jennings must have had that night, but I'm not going to spend a lot of time defending my thoughts. I choose them, they go on the site.

      I feel continuing to go over such specifics takes away from a larger dicussion that could occur here. What that discussion is, I don't know. But there has to be something better here than figuring out that I am still developing as a writer.
      Reply
    1. Rich Gapinski's Avatar
      Quote Originally Posted by Ragar View Post
      (and I did notice what you did here trying to pull a Packers jinx for this weekend, I'm on to you!!!)
      Actually, that did not cross my mind. But, now it has. You really need that nap, you're just being a masochist now.
      Reply
    1. edave's Avatar
      Jennings left the family night game with a concussion after having had an unreported concussion near the end of practice on Wednesday. It took about 16 days (my notes are fuzzy) before he was ruled eligible to practice.

      As for the sports hernia he is having operated on Tuesday, I can't nail down when it happened but week 3 against the Seahawks seems like the right time frame.
      Reply