The San Diego Chargers training staff won the Athletic Training Staff of the Year award and Dallas...

The San Diego Chargers training staff won the Athletic Training Staff of the Year award and Dallas Cowboys assistant Joe DeCamillis won a special Courage Award after surviving the collapse of the team's training facility last May.

This is not a joke

almost 2 years ago John Gennaro 24 comments 0 recs |

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so all of our woes weren't because our training staff sucks?!?!

Then all of our woes must be because we didn’t switch to a 4-3 or because we fired Schotty

by Stephen (shaynes41) on Mar 19, 2010 9:38 AM PDT reply actions

Yeah

But Vick won the courage award; somebody send them a picture of Buster.

"Football is a physical sport, sometimes you have a disagreement on what's going on, and you have a discussion about it." Kris Dielman

by Brian (DaBolts) on Mar 19, 2010 10:09 AM PDT reply actions

Why would this be a joke? What’s wrong with the training staff?

by CABurrito on Mar 19, 2010 10:10 AM PDT reply actions

Many people criticized them for all of the injuries that occurred in 2009. In reality, having 13 players that ended up on IR is pretty average. It just seemed worse early on when the defensive linemen were dropping like flies.

"When they come for me I'll be sitting at my desk, with a gun in my hand wearing a bullet-proof vest, singing 'My, my, my, how the time does fly when you know you're going to die by the end of the night.'" - Catch 22

by John Gennaro on Mar 19, 2010 10:12 AM PDT up reply actions

Meh

Football is a rough, violent, physical game. LT has compared playing in an NFL game to being in car wreck every week. You can’t expect no injuries, and you certainly can’t expect the staff to magically prevent them from happening. Their job is to fix what’s broke (if possible), and I’d say they do a good job of that.

by CABurrito on Mar 19, 2010 10:36 AM PDT up reply actions

They are also tasked with preventing injuries

not just fixing them. That’s why, when they appeared to be happening so often early on, people questioned their ability.

Oh internet, what a wicked web you weave.

by Mad_Villain on Mar 19, 2010 10:49 AM PDT up reply actions

how does the training staff prevent injuries?

perhaps you’re lumping the strength and condition coaches in there? Most players, if they are not injured, will never set foot in the trainer’s room.

by Stephen (shaynes41) on Mar 19, 2010 10:58 AM PDT up reply actions

I am lumping a bit.

But they both work to prevent injuries.

From nata.org

Certified athletic trainers (ATCs) are medical experts in preventing, recognizing, managing and rehabilitating injuries that result from physical activity. Athletic trainers can help you avoid unnecessary medical treatment and disruption of normal daily life; if you’re injured, they can get you on the mend and keep you on the move.

Oh internet, what a wicked web you weave.

by Mad_Villain on Mar 19, 2010 11:34 AM PDT up reply actions

Even if that was within their power (and I believe they can have only a minimal effect on that), its impossible for us to know how many injuries they did prevent. You can’t count an injury which doesn’t happen.

by CABurrito on Mar 19, 2010 11:05 AM PDT up reply actions

But you can count a lack of injuries.

Oh internet, what a wicked web you weave.

by Mad_Villain on Mar 19, 2010 11:29 AM PDT up reply actions

But how can you know that those injuries were preventable by the training staff?

And, more importantly, how can you count their “successes”? There’s no way to prove that they stopped 1, or 10 , or 100 potential injuries.

Last year we had 13 guys on IR, which is pretty average for an NFL team. How can we know how many would have been on IR if not for the training staff? Maybe 15? or 20? 25?

by CABurrito on Mar 19, 2010 11:37 AM PDT up reply actions

Pulled muscles, cramps, groin injuries, hamstring injuries, all these can be somewhat prevented by good training staff and strength and conditioning. It’s torn ligaments, broken bones, etc etc etc, that can’t be prevented.

by ArksnBolts on Mar 19, 2010 11:40 AM PDT up reply actions

I do understand what you're saying, but....

my initial comment was that they are also tasked with preventing injuries, not that I know the measurement for calling them an ‘award winning’ staff.

Oh internet, what a wicked web you weave.

by Mad_Villain on Mar 19, 2010 11:51 AM PDT up reply actions

could it be

a powder puff training camp since Norv took charge? could also explain the slow starts.

by boltsgamedayfootball on Mar 20, 2010 11:07 AM PDT up reply actions

The training staff has done a fantastic job.

Many fans are always going to go into a frenzy with regards to injuries on their chosen team. The perception among them will always be that the team is getting hammered by injuries, their team is the only one suffering through this, their team is suffering more than anyone else, etc. regardless of what the stats say.

For 2009, the Chargers had a relatively average to healthy year by NFL standards. Which is one of the reasons I was especially disappointed by with regards to their playoff performance. After being hammered by injuries to a lot of their star players the last couple of years, I was really looking forward to a deep playoff run with everyone being relatively healthy. Ah well, but that’s all in the past now and is a subject for another conversation.

Anyway, for those who still refuse to believe that the Chargers were relatively healthy for the most part last year in comparison to other teams, you can look things up here:

http://www.nfl.com/injuries

I love my team of historically talented underachievers.

by DoubleViking on Mar 19, 2010 11:19 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs

Couple of more things to keep in mind.

Regardless of how good a training staff is, injuries can and do happen for a variety of reasons. I’m pretty sure it’s not the Patriots training staff’s fault that Welker tore 2/3rds of the ligaments in his knee due to a freak occurance in the way he pushed off on his leg in the Texans game.

Additionally, rehabbing players on injury goes a long way to evaluating a training staff. Gates looks great and had one of the best years of his career last year after the toe injury. Rivers is likewise looking good after his knee surgery.

I love my team of historically talented underachievers.

by DoubleViking on Mar 19, 2010 11:37 AM PDT reply actions

I was gonna bring up Welker as an example. No way can you pin his injury on anything but bad luck. And you are correct, the real test of a training staff is in rehabbing players post injury, and in that sense I thing the Bolts trainers do a great job.

by CABurrito on Mar 19, 2010 11:40 AM PDT up reply actions