Shoulder woe may not be serious, but Edwards’ record of damage is

By Anthony Bialy  |   Wednesday, January 07, 2009  |  Comments( 116 )

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Quarterback Trent Edwards’ sore throwing shoulder is making the Buffalo Bills wince in agony. After the player complained about tenderness in the joint at his year-end physical, the team sent him for an MRI to check it out and will now send him to doctors to see if there’s an issue not just with pain but also with the condition. While it’s been reported as not seeming serious in addition to the fact that he still has tests to undergo before the possibility of surgery even gets discussed, the possibility of that possibility has to make fans nervous, particularly considering that Edwards just can’t stay well.

The problem is that Edwards always has problems: he’s been plagued with twinges throughout his life as a quarterback, a reality that began to emerge in Palo Alto, California. As Stanford’s quarterback, he only made it through one full college season in 2005, losing time in his other campaigns to a litany of dings. Most troubling in light of his latest concern, he suffered a shoulder injury during his redshirt freshman season at Stanford in 2003 which kept him out of two games and limited him to a backup role for three more; he also missed the season finale with an unwell thigh.

Edwards followed that up by missing two games during his second college season and getting knocked out of another two; eerily, that same line could have been written about his second pro season. Further, a 2006 broken foot finished his college career on October 14 of that year instead of five games later as it would have had he remained fracture-free. That history of injury is even more disturbing than the fact that his cached Stanford bio lists his favorite actor as Jim Carrey.

He’s been unfortunately steady when it comes to missing time or games in the NFL so far, too. Backers certainly remember that the passer sustained a wrist injury his rookie season against the New York Jets that cost him starts, and he of course suffered both a concussion and groin-related predicament this past year which in turn forced the team to suffer through J.P. Losman’s performance. The aforementioned fact that he missed a pair of games outright while having to leave a second pair in his latest season just means that he’s continuing his trend of watching someone else play quarterback for a bit almost every year.

That said, this present ailment might not lead to more missed snaps: it could be that this is nothing more than routine soreness for a player that, after all, just finished a 374-attempt season. But fears get amplified when the ache is being endured by a player who gets hurt like he makes appointments to do so. The dental-visit regularity of Edwards’ ouchies makes his current pain seem to be more dirt on the pile. If this tender shoulder was Edwards’ first problem, observers would only feel mildly concern at this point, but whispers about his well-being turn into grumblings when one brings to mind his tendency to break.

No matter how serious it turns out to be, the most recent disorder feeds into the belief that Edwards has been exposed as a player who’s built of cardboard and peanut brittle. In addition to causing pain for the Bills, Edwards’ incessant physical nuisances cause fans to have to get stitches after they gash open their heads on coffee tables following them passing out from holding their breath while once again worrying about the quarterback’s health. His potential shoulder crisis just means that there’s no change in the condition of Edwards always having a condition with which to deal.
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