When you get old

I, for one, very much enjoyed the Dez Bryant era.

Newly signed wide receiver Dez Bryant suffered what the New Orleans Saints fear may be a serious injury at practice Friday, according to an NFL.com report.

Per the report, Bryant had to be helped off the practice field Friday (Nov. 9) and is receiving an MRI on what the team is fearing could be a torn Achilles tendon. An ESPN report stated the injury occurred on the final play of practice.

Bryant is an 8 year veteran who just turned 30. That doesn't seem very old but remember Saints all time leading receiver Marques Colston retired at age 32 after 10 seasons, the last of which was only half as productive as each of the previous nine.  It's expecting a lot for a high performance athlete whose skills involve sprinting, jumping, planting and turning as quickly and violently as possible, to maintain a peak level very much beyond the point when his body's flexibility and resilience starts to go.  And, when it goes, that usually manifests as a greater frequency of injuries like this.

I'm an old dude now but I still run regularly.  I can remember a time when, if I had sprained or pulled something in my foot, the best way to recover would just be to keep running on it until it fixed itself. I have to be a lot more careful now. A twinge in the heel can blow up into a fully sprained calf that will keep me off of the leg altogether for weeks at a time.  I can mitigate that a bit by stretching more and by being more deliberate with my stride. Also I find that it's a lot less wear and tear if I keep my weight down.  Which is why this seems significant.

The #Saints would like to see Dez Bryant get down about 5 more lbs but liked what they saw at workout. He’s been training w WR coach David Robinson working on his hip flexibility, foot quickness in short area spaces, intermediate route running and attacking routes harder pic.twitter.com/Ml7fm8HPpy

— Jane Slater (@SlaterNFL) November 7, 2018

In any case, it gets harder when you get older. I can still do the things I have to do them more carefully and less aggressively.  A professional athlete really doesn't have that option.