Thursday's news that Texans QB Deshaun Watson (torn ACL) and Colts QB Andrew Luck (shoulder) would be sidelined for the remainder of the season "added to an injury problem that already was a little outside the norm for modern league standards," according to Conor Orr of SI.com. Watson and Luck make eight "face of the franchise" players who have been lost to season-ending injuries this year. They join Giants WR Odell Beckham Jr., Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, Browns OT Joe Thomas, Chiefs S Eric Berry, Texans DE J.J. Watt and Cardinals RB David Johnson. Looking at the "total number of players placed on injured reserve at the Nov. 1 benchmark each season for the past five years," 295 players have been placed on an injury list in '17, up from 277 in '16. This season also "seems to be the worst year for injuries to premier players in this window" (SI.com, 11/2). FS1's Nick Wright said having "this many star players hurt" is bad for the league ("First Things First," FS1, 11/3). YAHOO SPORTS' Dan Wetzel wrote under the header, "Deshaun Watson's Injury Was Depressing Finish To NFL's Week From Hell." Watson's injury came in a week when the courts continued debating the suspension for Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott and the owner of Papa John's "blamed his sagging pizza sales on the league." The NFL is the "biggest bully on the block ... so there are few tears shed when fortunes break bad." But even its greatest critics would have to acknowledge the fall of '17 has been "full of bum luck." The loss of Watson is a "particular gut punch because he has been one of the few universal feel-good stories" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 11/2).
ANOTHER BIG LOSS FOR THE LEAGUE: ESPN's Bill Polian noted the NFL "takes a hit" with Watson's season-ending injury, as he had become "one of the brightest stars on the field" ("SportsCenter," ESPN, 11/2). In Houston, Aaron Wilson notes Watson was "establishing himself as one of the top young quarterbacks and most exciting players in the game" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 11/3). ESPN’s Mike Greenberg said Watson was “one of the most genuinely exciting thrilling things that has happened” to the NFL “this year or in recent memory.” Greenberg: “In a football season that needs as many good stories as it can possibly find, I don’t know that there’s a better one right now than what this kid has done.” ESPN’s Booger McFarland said, "For a league that has gone through so much with off-the-field concerns ... this was a feel good story” (“Mike & Mike,” ESPN Radio, 11/3). SNY's Dan Graca called the Watson injury "awful just as an NFL viewer, because now the Houston Texans are that less appealing when you're turning on the game to watch them" ("Loud Mouths," SNY, 11/2).
BASEBALL TAKING CHARGE: In DC, Thomas Boswell writes the NFL "just got another big problem: baseball." After a "thrilling seven-game World Series for the third time in four years," baseball, a sport that was "never far 'down,' is headed back up, with just a handful of problems, most of them manageable." Meanwhile, the NFL has more "intractable issues than a junkyard mutt has fleas." For the third time in four years, baseball had "one of the all-time best World Series" plus a "jubilant, exuberant young champion that will bring power, energy, advanced critical thinking and athleticism to the sport for years." The Astros-Dodgers World Series "cast baseball in sharp relief against an NFL season that so far is drab, injury-filled, controversy-laden and so full of parity that almost nobody is worth watching." These days, baseball is "smart, innovative, in love with change and so dynamic you can hardly keep up with it," while the NFL has been "asleep for decades, collecting cash and become sclerotic" (WASHINGTON POST, 11/3).
SLEW OF ISSUES: In Phoenix, Dan Bickley writes NFL players have "never felt such contempt for their employers." Owners still "view athletes as inmates and disposable assets." And while declining viewership "plagues the entire television industry, the NFL is supposed to be bulletproof." It was a "huge marketing coup" for MLB when World Series Game 6 "clobbered 'Sunday Night Football' by three ratings points." The ongoing issue over the national anthem has been "corrosive and divisive." All of this is "spinning toward a potential lockout" in '21, when "militant players and arrogant owners could stage the nastiest labor battle on record, conceivably killing the golden goose" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 11/3).
