Playing through the pain is something every NFL player has to do, but what Detroit Lions center Frank Ragnow did defies belief.
Lions center Frank Ragnow FRACTURED HIS THROAT and kept playing
I’M QUEASY!
Photo by Amy Lemus/NurPhoto via Getty Images
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
There’s a hell of a lot to break down in this one tweet. Firstly, this wasn’t a late-game injury in a close one that necessitated heroics. Dude FRACTURED HIS THROAT in the first quarter of the game, then decided to keep on playing because NFL players are absolutely ridicuous.
Then we come to the kicker line “could miss this week.” If I cut myself in the kitchen you better believe I’m ordering take out for the next week. If I FRACTURE MY THROAT you best believe I’m taking the entire season off, and probably never playing football again. I think my friends and family would understand, because I FRACTURED MY THROAT.
This kind of injury, more specifically is a “laryngeal fracture,” caused by blunt force trauma to the neck. Sports injuries are cited as a common cause of laryngeal fracture, but playing with the injury — especially for an hour long football game is unheard of.
It’s common for these kind of fractures to require a tracheotomy to keep the patient’s airway open. The injury is serious enough that it results in fatality in 17.9 percent of presenting cases to emergency rooms. Its unclear how Ragnow’s fracture is being managed, but it could require correction to ensure there is no long-term damage to his breathing, or vocal quality.
He also probably shouldn’t keep playing football for a full game with a FRACTURED THROAT any time soon.
