The 2020 NFL Week 10 Roundup | Dr. Who?
Drip Drip Drip
[Editor’s Note: This week’s Headline Story is the second in a two-week miniseries look into on-site medical care administered by NFL/Team-employed medical professionals and the murky tension of this implied Doctor-Patient dynamic]
As you close your eyes and release into the moment, unmistakable is the menthol-cool blast deeply permeating your body as with each passing breath your being gathers youthful vigor and stamina-ed resiliency, the better to bat away and fend off anything a menacing Covid-imbued existence could possibly manage to loft your way. Or so the thinking goes. As Billed in glossy brochures, sharply-edited videos and breathless Celebrity and Influencer testimonials touting the latest trend in FOMO well-being, IV Fluid Hydration is currently enjoying a Moment. Acne Eraser! Skin Plumper! Immunity Recharge! Hangover’s Enemy #1! Toxin Flush! Cognitive Repair in Minutes! You get the idea. All of these hyperventilating overpromises have, in American entrepreneurial style, spawned a cottage industry of practitioners seemingly sprouting wings ready to deploy IV-bag equipped mobile teams to the crisp opening of any checkbook. Well-patronized standalone Hydration Clinics, too, dot metropolitan areas nationwide for those who prefer a more traditional setting for receiving nutritive intravenous therapies. Cushily tufted loungers; Sennheiser HD Studio over-the-ear headphones immersing your subconscious to the melodic soundtrack of your choosing; micro-tailored artisanal aromatherapies; the calm of 10,000 Tahitian sunsets; what’s not to like? Anyone can order up such a dreamy IV drip, and the Clinics that have happily sprung up to offer them step all over themselves trumpeting besoke blends of electrolytes, vitamins and minerals in an all-out brawl to make worth it the $400 they’ll be invoicing you in exchange. And for all of it, each will reward you with that signature, seductively brisk wave as it gently courses, crests and refreshingly overcomes your being north to south, east to west. It’s a logline that’s difficult to resist, at least to the more easily influenced among us.
But as with most trends that make their way into pop culture, each can trace their lineage to legitimate and worthy purposes in adjacent lanes. Velcro, charcoal toothpaste, the Internet, ring lights, Cronuts, to name a few. But none more so and with such brute force in the past few years than the fanfare surrounding IV Fluid Hydration. Developed in the 1930s and perfected in the 1950s, IV Fluid Hydration used to be of hospital-setting provenance where it benefited severely dehydrated and malnourished bedridden patients unable to otherwise eat or drink of their own volition. Only recently has the Sports world awakened to the nourishing benefits of such therapies. The NFL in particular was an early adopter and embraced IV Fluid Hydration as a standard (pre and post)conditioning regimen for its professional athletes. Some 75% of all NFL Teams count themselves as fervent believers. Team Physicians and Trainers stake their claims on IV Hydration’s “proven” role in preventing muscle cramps, quickening recovery time and boosting performance. All of these benefits are subjective at best. And they all fall under the NFL’s shadowy non-policy policy overseeing the use of IV fluids: “IVs are permitted only for health and safety reasons as directed by medical personnel. The fluid may not contain any banned substances which could trigger a positive test under the performance-enhancing substances policy.” But armed with the pretext of dehydration and the want of warding off debilitating muscle cramps, players all over the NFL are now adding pre-and-post game IV Hydration therapies to their off-field offensive arsenal much to the disapproving chagrin of medical professionals on the outside looking in. What could possibly go wrong, murmur IV-line attached athletes blind to full disclosure.
What could possibly go wrong? Plenty it turns out. Meet Trent Brown, the 6-year NFL veteran and star Offensive Tackle for the Las Vegas Raiders who in March 2019 signed a record setting (for an Offensive lineman) $66M splashy four-year deal with RaiderNation, 56% of it guaranteed. The 2020 Season met Trent with trepidation though as he’s only played 2 games through the Season’s now complete 10 weeks. And so Week 7 found Trent on the COVID-19 IR list. Trent in the ensuing week cleared all League-mandated protocols, tested negative repeatedly every day and was itching to get back onto the playing field. The Raiders cleared him to play in Week 8 against the Browns in Cleveland and the stage was set for Trent’s much-anticipated re-debut. But at 6’8” and pushing 359 pounds, he is the heaviest athlete in the NFL. In an effort to optimize Trent’s start, he along with Team physicians and trainers opted for the familiar and trusted restorative IV Fluid Hydration therapeutic technique just before kickoff. Take THAT, cramps and dehydration! Well the technician affixed the 1.5 liter saline drip atop the IV pole just as routine and standard practice dictated. Trent’s mid-forearm catheter set and the prime administration line primed, the technician screwed the two connections together and manually set his drip rate. The saline solution began to flow and Trent eagerly awaited that telling and refreshing blast of coolant as it washed through his body. The near instantaneous shortness of breath he received instead sent medical personnel scrambling for their phones to dial 911. They knew right away that they were dealing with an embolism — air entering the bloodstream — a potentially fatal affliction. Trent’s wheeziness continued to worsen and a decision was made to quicly wheel him out of the locker room in plain view of his horrified teammates (including QB Derek Carr) to meet the en-route ambulance. As throngs of medical and team personnel followed Trent down the dark hallway, players were left to pray for and painfully digest what they had just witnessed. Trent’s minutes-long journey to the hospital resulting from split-second reactionary decision-making probably saved his life as Embolisms can lead to heart attacks, strokes and respiratory failure. Not much is known about Trent’s course of treatment at hospital other than the fact the Trent thankfully stormed back to relative good health two days later on Nov 3rd when he was officially discharged. But while he is free from the hospital, Trent falls interestingly back onto the COVID-IR list and is expected to remain out of commission for the next month, potentially derailing what remains of his 2020 Season. But as is most important, Trent is recovering nicely at home in Sin City with his family.
But did it have to be this way? Hard to tell considering the fraught nature of now-nearly-standard Team-administered IV Hydration Therapy and the NFL’s lazy oversight of this de facto standard. Among the dirty secrets in the NFL, there is actually little evidence that an IV drip actually prevents dehydration-induced muscle cramps in professional athletes. Moreover, doctors explain that the 1.5 liters of delivered intravenous saline solution is more easily administered by drinking the same amount of electrolyte-laden water. So all the same benefits without the fussiness of IV poles, drip rates, catheters and well, embolisms. Doctors not in the NFL’s employ suspect that athletes are demanding this therapy because of the perceived benefits that accompany its dramatic cooling sensation that courses through ones veins. Athletes equate this sensation with strength and rehabilitation, falsely it turns out. So if Teams are so eager to provide a phantom health regimen, the NFL is so determined to rubber stamp team physicians, and players so convinced to expand IV Hydration therapy, does that leave room on the pedestal for Hippocrates? Akin to a tail-wags-the-dog scenario, this therapy shows no signs of abating. IV Hydrations Therapy has chewed it’s way into popular culture (with mobile Teams and strip mall storefronts) armed with custom-tailored vitamin-mineral blends, tellingly drilled down to the collegiate level and alarmingly has set foot in high school football programs (where players were show surrounding an IV pole on a school bus). For a practice long banned at the Olympic level, a funny thing is occurring in American sports. Athletes at all levels are increasingly put in harms way by a thriving infrastructure that marks its presence thus far with the absence of a significant governance counterweight. The administration of an IV is not a trivial procedure; it’s to be performed by a trained doctor, nurse or medical technician in a sterile locale. Short of that, all bets are OFF. All it would take to short circuit this unnerving trend would be a stern NO and a trusty Hydro Flask, items seemingly in short supply within locker rooms countrywide. All of this just the latest in the muddy doctor-patient dynamic enmeshed in professional Sports. AND all of this for the same feeling imparted by a York Peppermint Patty. More or less. Regardless, Hard PASS.
Turning the page now to Week 10 in the NFL, it seems fans would be hard-pressed to deny the alure of a proverbial IV drip there very own after watching the Game of the Week with Bills at Cards. It’s a play you’ve no doubt seen repeated ad nauseam within your Twitter scrolls and really for good reason. I mean they don’t call plays such as the one ARI QB Kyler Murray unbelievably executed a Hail Mary for no reason. Down 6 with 11 seconds left in Regulation, Kyler dodged and ducked to evade 3 fast-closing BUF defenders and managed to reel of a 43 yard arcing pass to star REC DeAndre Hopkins who himself was encircled by 2 BUF defenders his very own. All three of them jumped in unison but DeAndre was able to out-loft, out-muscle and out-reach this dual threat to perfectly capture the game winning TD in the endzone. This triggered stunned faces of disbelief among BUF players and squeals of jubilation from Cardinal Nation and along with if film that will live on to be chattered about for years to come. With their improbable 32–30 victory at hand, Kyler Murray is that bona fide superstar QB Arizona has been thirsting for for years. He along with the fortuitous DeAndre Hopkins just-in add (from HOU) are still more evidence of Arizona’s accelerating rise from their ashen past. Similarly, down in Miami don’t look now but the Fins are HOT HOT HOT on a 5 game winning streak. Their 29–21 defeat of the luckless Chargers further burnishes HC Brian Flores’s decision to start rookie QB Tua Tagovailoa over vet Ryan Fitzpartick. Tua’s third start in a row continues to impress particularly his ability to meld and lead so well mid-stream with an air brigade already in flight. LAC QB Justin Herbert despite a decent showing was let down by his Secondary and the whole lot of them wallow at 2–7 on the Season. The Chargers just can’t catch a break this year.
In Foxborough, the Patriots after last week’s too-close-for-comfort WIN at Jets battled back and vanquished the all of a sudden faltering Ravens, 23–17 . QB Cam Newton is showing some spark of late and it’s coming none too soon for a team that at 4–5 is leaking air at a steady clip. He’ll need a measured uphill run from here to land another contact at season’s end. Baltimore for their part reached rocky shores on a literal stormy, drenching night that further diluted star QB Lamar Jackson’s potency and denting what was has become one the NFL’s fiercest Defensive squads. But at 6–3, hope remans as the clock ticks ever louder. Meanwhile, 49ers at NOLA might best be remembered as the matchup that beached Drew Brees for the Season behind 5 (!!!) rib fractures (3 most likely incurred during last week’s blowout game against TB) and a punctured lung. For those of you who did your studying, you’ll know what a debilitating and time-consuming recovery course this pencils out to. Meanwhile the battle of his understudies in Turnover King Jameis Winston and utility player Taysom Hill is just getting underway with the former so far performing passably. Obvi, the Saints batted away the San Francisco Minute Clinic, 27–13, and cruise to 7–2 on the Season. And lastly Seattle at Rams turned out quite the eye-opener but for all the wrong reasons if you count yourself a SEA fan. As has been a Season-long theme, SEA’s Russell Wilson-powered Offense has be soooo productive and dominating as to counter for and overcome their thin-sauced Defense. Well then what happens when that vaunted Offense deflates? Well you have a mess of a game the type on display on Sunday where they racked an uncharacteristic L to division rivals LAR, 16–23. Russell incurred 2 picks measuring 7 turnovers in just the last two matchups. NOT the stuff of legends. Set against this Seattle fog, Rams QB Jared Goff happily worked the register and rung up a well-timed W. Each at 6–3 and technically tied for first place atop the busy NFC West, the Cards, Seahawks and Rams are seeing trajectories of varying success. Keep your eyes planted our West for one of the most combustible tinderboxes on offer in the NFL.
Now onto our Round Robin, yes? The reigning Prom Kings of the NFL — The Steelers — continued their domination tour easily unplugging the Joe Burrow Bengals machine, 36–10. Steel City, now at 9–0 which not only serves as the League’s best but also a Franchise record start, marches confidently on to the post-Season. Tom Brady and his Buccs stormed back this week against the Panthers, 46–23, in a wild overcorrection from last week’s humiliating bludgeoning. Special call-out to TB RB Ronald Jones II whose rushing game (192 yards/98 Long/1 TD) was as delightful to watch as it was stomach-churning for Carolina fans to digest. And at 7–3 on the Season, there is life yet in Tompa Bay. But I don’t know, there’s just something about the Buccs that doesn’t quite set right. Like that fabled Island of Misfit Toys where at the macro-level a wonderland is at hand, but at the micro-level you are lavished with a water gun that squirts jelly and a locomotive with square wheels. Anyhow I digress. The Giants upset the Eagles 27–17 and in doing so scored their 2nd win in succession. Too, QB Daniel Jones is showing surprising signs of strength and discipline (for the Giants, anyway) so that’s a good thing. Maybe new Coach Joe Judge can mold something of this hard-scrabble Team after all. NCF Least rivals, the Washington Footballers, lost to the Lions and a blowout performance from DET QB Matt Stafford 27–30. But the silver lining out of this game was the hardiness on display with beloved WAS QB Alex Smith (38/55 390 yards 0 TDs) who looks to be passing his way to becoming the Team’s official starter. Oh the Team’s record is still 2–7 neck-deep in doo-doo but at least Alex is BACK. And lastly, the JAX QB Jake Luton experiment is not panning out as planned. He ran headlong into the Packers and Dr. Aaron Rodgers who singed the rookie’s gravity-defying wings which were so well-deployed last week. At 1–8 on the Season, the Jags are looking to elbow aside the Jets for #1 pick in the 2021 Draft. Inside voices please, fellas. Thank you.
