RAIDERS WR DEALING WITH COLD FEET?
San Francisco’s Bosa leaves drills with apparent leg injury
Antonio Brown, according to a source, entered a cyrotherapy machine without the proper footwear and suffered frostbite.
Mystery solved? Chris Simms thinks so. According to USA Today, the “Pro Football Talk Live” co-host is reporting that the source of Antonio Brown’s blistered feet is the result of improper use of a cryotherapy machine.
Apparently Brown, the dazzling wide receiver in his first training camp with the Oakland Raiders, entered the machine without proper footwear. The revolting photos of his feet? That’s frostbite, said Simms, who “got word from someone with knowledge of the situation.”
Per USA Today: “Full-body cryotherapy is a popular recovery method used by athletes like LeBron James. Basically you stand in a cryotherapy chamber for roughly three minutes as temperatures drop as low as minus-11.” Proper footwear is a must. Or should be. Brown wouldn’t be the first athlete to have a mishap with cryotherapy. Last year two Missouri State University basketball players developed foot blisters after a cryotherapy session.
Brown’s absence from the practice field has been one of the biggest plot lines at Raiders’ training camp, and his tender feet have been a source of frustration for head coach Jon Gruden.
49ERS: Rookie defensive end Nick Bosa, who has been one of the team’s most prominent bright spots throughout the first nine training camp practices, walked off the field after suffering an apparent lower right leg injury Wednesday.
Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh didn’t have an immediate prognosis on Bosa’s injury after practice, but he did acknowledge the No. 2 pick in April’s draft was making a major impact in the early going.
Bosa appeared to get tangled up during a running play roughly two-thirds of the way through the padded practice and stayed on the ground where members of the training staff looked at his right foot and ankle area. After a few moments, he slowly stood up and began walking gingerly off the field to go inside for further testing.
KAEPERNICK: Colin Kaepernick says he’s “still ready” to return to the NFL, even though he is set to enter his third season out of the league.
In a video posted Wednesday on social media, the 31-year-old Kaepernick is shown working out in a gym. He says in the video: “5 a.m. 5 days a week. For 3 years. Still Ready.”
Kaepernick, then with the San Francisco 49ers, helped start a wave of protests about social and racial injustice in 2016 by kneeling during the national anthem at games.
The protests slowed down last season as the NFL made contributions to organizations chosen by players and promised more attention to social justice issues.
While he has been away from the playing field, the former quarterback has become an advocate for social and racial justice.
The NFL in February settled a collusion grievance Kaepernick and cornerback Eric Reid filed against the league. Reid, who played 13 games last season for the Panthers, signed a three-year contract with Carolina in February.
BEARS: The team will unveil statues of Hall of Famers Walter Payton and George S. Halas outside of Chicago’s Soldier Field on Sept. 3.
The 12-foot, 3,000-pound bronze statues honoring the great running back and the franchise founder and coach will be made public two days before the Bears host Green Bay to kick off the season.
PRO BOWL: The postseason all-star game will return to Orlando, Fla., for the fourth straight year and be held one week before the Super Bowl.
The NFL’s all-star game will be an afternoon match at 3 on Sunday, Jan. 26. A week later, the league’s championship game will be played a few hours south in the Miami area.
OBITUARY: Jack Dolbin Jr., a wide receiver who was on the Denver Broncos’ first Super Bowl team in 1977, had died at age 70.
Dolbin, who later became a chiropractor, educator and lecturer, died Thursday at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pennsylvania, according to his obituary posted on legacy.com.
Born Dec. 12, 1948, in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Dolbin took a circuitous route to the NFL, playing in three smaller leagues in the early 1970s before catching on with the Broncos five years after leaving Wake Forest.