Wow, I wasn't aware of this: No team knows the condition ofJaylon Smith's surgically repaired left knee better than the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys’ head team physician, Dr. Daniel Cooper, performed the operation on Smith’s knee one week after Notre Dame’s appearance in the Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl, where Smith suffered the injury. While every team had the same information, Cooper’s intimate knowledge of the torn anterior cruciate and lateral collateral ligaments and recovery, plus the attitude of the patient, gave the Cowboys an edge. “It definitely helped when their team doctor does the surgery,” Smith said, “and I’m very thankful.” Smith said he trusted the word of the Notre Dame medical staff as well as his late agent, Eugene Parker, who had a long history with the franchise, in that Cooper was the best available. In February, Cooper was given the Arthur C. Rettig Award for Academic Excellence by the NFL Physicians Society for his study, “Return to Play Following Isolated and Combined ACL Reconstruction: 25 Years of Experience Treating NFL Athletes.” Among the co-authors was Cowboys associate athletic trainer Britt Brown. Cooper’s specialties are surgical techniques for knee and shoulder injuries. What makes Smith’s injury less common, however, is the damage to the peroneal nerve. In a USA Today article, Cooper said Smith would likely need a redshirt season and that the nerve injury takes nine to 15 months to fully recover. Cooper said the damage stretched Smith’s nerve “enough to make it go to sleep, but it wasn’t stretched enough to be structurally elongated or visually very damaged,” adding, “He’s had time for his nerve to regrow two inches, and the area of where his nerve was injured is six inches above the muscle that it innervates. I wouldn’t really expect him to get much innervation back into that muscle for two or three more months. Then once it does -- I’ve seen kids who are completely paralyzed like him on the lateral side and not able to pick their foot up at all [that] wind up being totally normal.” Smith said Friday, “I get different sensations every day with the nerve, but it’s just timing. I’m only 3½ months out, so time will definitely tell but the knee is fine. That was cleared at the medical recheck, that the knee won’t have any issues. It’s just timing for the nerve.” http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas-cowb...n-coopers-expertise-in-selecting-jaylon-smith
Yah, the surgeon that performed the procedure on the guy has no better insight than some illiterate fuck posting on a Jets message board. Makes sense.
Yep, the surgeon who went inside the knee of Jaylon Smith, looked around at the damage in there, repaired the damage and sewed him up has no better idea than anyone else how Smith will heal. Do some people even think for a millisecond before posting?
Dallas was in a pretty unusual spot in the draft as they have a Superbowl contending roster providing everyone stays healthy, yet picked at the top of the draft. They have the luxury of taking a player like this and being patient with him whereas teams like us need to fill holes on the roster fast. Outside of crazy Jerry he couldn't have went to a better situation.
If any of you know anything the problem with Smith is the nerve. All Dr say the nerve is hard to say how it will heal if it does. Ala Peyton Manning.
Are you still not understanding? If a doctor named Bob goes in and performs the surgery on Jaylon Smith, it is very likely that Bob has a good idea of how the surgery went, the timetable of healing, and the chances of Jaylon coming back strong and healthy. Bob has had a look inside the knee and had more insight because of it. I think it would be safe to say that Bob knows more about Jaylon Smith's knee and everything that goes with it. More so than, let's say, Mike or Joe, two other NFL team doctors who are looking from the outside. It's just a hunch though.
Regardless of who did the surgery, no one knows if that inactive nerve will start firing again. Nerves are tricky in how they regenerate and if it was a sure science on what to do to make them active again we would have a lot of people in the world walking when they are stuck in chairs.
