Pulling Back The Curtain On Tyrod Taylor's Injury

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Friends,

Tyrod Taylor, the starting quarterback of the Los Angeles Chargers, was a last minute scratch before Sundays game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Most people chalked it up to Head Coach Anthony Lynn attempting to get an advantage by not allowing the Chiefs to adequately game plan for eventual starter - rookie quarterback Justin Herbert.

Not only would that be a violation of NFL rules, but yesterday we found out that’s not even what happened.

Here’s why Tyrod Taylor didn’t play Sunday:

The sports world was shocked - How could a team doctor mess this up? How much will Tyrod Taylor sue for?

One former NFL player even jokingly (perhaps seriously idk) said that if it was up to him and his lawyer, the team would be called the “Tyrod Taylor Chargers” by the time he was done suing them.

Jokes aside - let’s run through the timeline of events, detail what legal options Tyrod Taylor has, discuss the commonality of the medical procedure and determine where the Chargers go from here.

( 📸 : Los Angeles Chargers)

Timeline of Events

For some context, here is a simple breakdown of the timeline of events:

Sunday, September 13th - Tyrod Taylor suffered two cracked ribs during the first drive of the Chargers' Week 1 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, playing through the injury.

Thursday, September 17th - Still experiencing discomfort from the game, Tyrod Taylor gets an MRI - which confirms he has cracked ribs.

Friday, September 18th - Per NFL rules, Tyrod Taylor is added to the teams injury report. It doesn’t last long though - Taylor was a full participant in practice later that day and is removed from the injury report within 18 hours of being added.

Sunday, September 20th - Between warmups and kickoff, the Chargers team doctor accidentally punctured quarterback Tyrod Taylor’s lung while trying to administer a pain-killing injection to the quarterbacks cracked ribs.

Where Does This Leave Us?

Upon researching the topic, one thing was clear - this is a common procedure in the NFL, which comes with known risks.

In addition to medical experts stating their lack of liability (shocker), former NFL player Pat McAfee said he talked to “multiple former teammates who received the exact same procedure” - who seemed to corroborate the same message as doctors (Source).

Details:

• The procedure is common among NFL players with rib injuries.

• It’s done minutes before kickoff since the numbness only last 4-4:30 hours.

• Not to say Tyrod Taylor was warned, but McAfee said every player he talked to mentioned the doctor warned them of the possibility of puncturing a lung.

• “If you are really trying to hit the right spot so that injection works, you are millimeters from the lung. Punctures are not frequent, but they do happen.”

Now that it happened, what options does Tyrod Taylor have?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like many.

It appears that when an NFL player agrees to receive medical care from team doctors through the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), they sign away their legal right to sue.

That’s not to say it’s not possible to win legal action, but you really have to prove neglect - which in this case, doesn’t appear to be the case given the facts we know.

So if he can’t win via legal action, what are his other options?

University of Florida sports law professor Darren Heitner believes Tyrod Taylor will eventually settle on workers compensation.

How Much Money Is He Going To Lose?

That’s the most interesting part - most likely, none.

From a financial standpoint, it doesn’t appear that Tyrod Taylor has any contractual incentives tied to starting games for the Los Angeles Chargers.

Taylor signed a 2-year, $11M deal with the Chargers this past offseason, but all of the money is delivered through the structure of base salary & signing bonus.

In simple terms, as long as Tyrod Taylor doesn’t get cut from the team, he’ll make his money.

What makes me so confident he won’t get cut?

He has a cap hit of $7.5M in 2021 - that’s backup QB money. The real question becomes if the injury lingers and it has the potential to impact his free agency contract in 2021. For now, that’s too many hypotheticals in advance to speculate.

Ultimately, it’s a shame what happened, and you can guarantee the Chargers team doctor doesn’t feel great about it either, but the options appear to be limited for Tyrod Taylor.

My guess?

If he’s healthy within the next few weeks, and plays out the remainder of the season as their starting quarterback, we likely won’t hear about this again.

For his sake, let’s hope that’s what happens.

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Extra Credit

Want to learn more about Tyrod Taylor’s injury? Check out this video by Dr. Brian Sutteter.

Dr. Brian Sutteter consistently produces great medically related video content, giving an overview of the most famous injuries in sports (KD’s Achilles, Saquon’s Knee, etc.).

I counted 30+ words I didn’t know in this 6-minute clip, but you’re all smarter than me, so I think you’ll enjoy it :)

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