Packers Release Injured Nick Collins...

I found this interesting. Collins suffered a serious neck injury early last season and had spinal fusion surgery. As far as I know there has been no final decision by his doctors as to the risk of serious injury if he was to play again. A few weeks ago at the owners meetings Mike McCarthy said that he would not let his kid play if he had the same injury and went on to say that he could not live with himself if something horrible happened to Collins (or something to that effect). My question is, do you suspect there is more to this story or are Ted Thompson and McCarthy actually looking at a person's life and not the football team's best interest. If it is in fact the former is this not rather unique in the NFL? Is this perhaps something we will see more of going forward (lawsuits etc...)?

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/148881405.html

 

I thought he failed his physical.

 

I don't believe this is true. The Packers said "they did not feel comfortable clearing him to play" but I don't even know if he had an official team physical. There were many doctors that said they would have no problem clearing him.

 

My mistake, that was Chad Clifton.

 

Haha, that is a funny one. You cheese heads and your rah-rah college spirit are amusing. If the Packers didn't have somebody better in his place, they'd be as willing as any other team to let him play.

 

I can promise you that they have nobody better in place. Unless they are planning on trading for Ed Reed. This is a huge hole in the defense and one of the main reasons (along with a shitty pass rush) that they had a historically poor pass defense last season. Now maybe there are some liability issues or something but he was not shown the door to save money or so a younger better player can step in to his place.

 

LTL spouting off without having a clue, episode No. 1,876,820.

The Packers may not have a better safety than Nick Collins for many, many years to come.

 

Uh, well, they don't. They don't have anyone half as good.

There's a lot going on here. I have to believe some of it has to do with all the concussion lawsuits from retired players we're seeing now. The Packers obviously don't want any kind of liability if something happens. Although I don't know if they could be held liable anyway.

I don't think Thompson wants a $5 million cap hit on a guy who could be paralyzed if he gets hit again. Then again, that can happen to anyone at any time. I do think that they care about his well-being. Ted Thompson played in the NFL for 10 years.

 

The "there's a lot going on here" is that Nick Collins, heading into his ninth season and coming off a major injury, is not worth the $4.05 million he is due to be paid. Gee, imagine that -- a guy getting toward 30 is suddenly expendable. That's only been happening since the advent of the salary cap if not before. You guys are remembering the player Collins was two or three years ago. He isn't that player anymore. Whether they have the replacement on the roster in Morgan Burnett, can address it in the first round tomorrow or even finally make the long-speculated switch of Woodson to safety, they have concluded they will be OK.

My main point being, the OP was wondering if they were doing this out of deference to his health. That is poppycock. They just had a flurry of extensions and are going to have to handle Rodgers in the not-too-distant future, and $4 million for free safety -- which is one of the cheaper and easier positions to fill -- didn't fit in their plans. Teams don't do things for player-first reasons.

 

We're remembering the player Nick Collins was the last time he was on the field, not three years ago. The Super Bowl season was one of his best. He also had a game-winning interception in the final game of that season to get GB in the playoffs, as well as a INT-TD in the Super Bowl. He's 28, not 33.

 

Guys get cut all the time in the 28-30 range when they've had that many seasons and their salary jumps that high. That's one big reason teams have a hard time repeating and dynasties don't happen -- formerly cheap players become too expensive. Packers save $3M against this year's cap by doing this.

 

I am sure that the cap thing plays a role ( if he is injured again it would be a cap hit). But if you don't understand that Collins was in the absolute fucking prime of his career and playing the best football of his career, then you should not comment. It took him a few years to get going, but as of 10 secs before his injury, he was one of the 3 or 4 best safeties in the NFL and was going to stay there for a few more years.