Teddy's Knee

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater suffered a serious injury to his left knee on August 30. He had surgery to repair the knee on Thursday. All of the Vikings beat writers knew this and peppered head coach Mike Zimmer with questions about the health of his quarterback. All Zimmer had to say then was that the surgery was "a good repair." He's not a doctor. Vikings head trainer Eric Sugarman was more expansive in this statement that he released yesterday. 

Teddy Bridgewater had his left knee surgically repaired yesterday. The procedure was performed by Dr. Dan Cooper at the Carrell Clinic in Dallas, TX. The knee dislocation resulted in Teddy needing a multi-ligament reconstruction. I was able to be present in Dallas, support Teddy and observe the entire procedure. The repair was excellent and gives Teddy every reason to be very optimistic.

Teddy already began the rehab process yesterday, will return to Minnesota to continue on the road to recovery very soon and looks forward to getting back on the field.

There was great optimism among Vikings faithful after Zimmer's brief comment. There was some mention from "sources" other than Zimmer that the ACL was the only ligament that required repair. That was a little difficult to believe as Bridgewater suffered a severe dislocation of his knee. This is one of many reasons that Zimmer doesn't much care for talking about injuries. Not being a doctor, he knows that he doesn't have the answers. Besides the fact that he simply doesn't want to answer those questions. Often, he doesn't want to answer any questions. He just wants to coach football. He's awesome. But, that's beside the point. Teddy Bridgewater's injury was serious but it still wasn't as serious as some feared. There wasn't the nerve or vascular damage that can occur in dislocations such as this. Perhaps that's what was meant in the brief and overly optimistic reports that came out immediately after the surgery.

A couple interesting nuggets regarding this surgery is that Dr. Dan Cooper is the Dallas Cowboys orthopedic surgeon. I'm sure glad that Sugarman was there to watch his every move. Cooper is also the doctor that performed the surgery on Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith's knee following his brutal injury in last January's Fiesta Bowl. The Cowboys, with their insider knowledge of the injury and surgery, selected Smith in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft. Due to the "look-away" nature of both, Bridgewater's injury has been compared to that suffered by Smith. The difference being that Smith suffered nerve damage as well as extensive ligament damage. That's the main reason he's still working hard to get back on the field. The absence of nerve damage in Bridgewater's knee is a source of optimism in Minnesota. No surgery and rehab is routine or easy but he has fewer obstacles in his return to the field than was feared. Like Zimmer, I'm no doctor but Teddy's knee injury sounds like it might be more like the one suffered by Adrian Peterson in 2011 despite the unfortunate similarities to Smith's. Hopefully, Bridgewater can come back in 2017 like Peterson came back in 2012. I do believe that Teddy Bridgewater made some reference to doing just that on the evening of August 30. 

Get well soon, Teddy.