FOXBOROUGH - Mike Vrabel promised Christian Gonzalez would "do some stuff at practice" today. Technically, that was true, but the reality of what we in the media were allowed to see (four periods in total) wouldn't make me think he's on the cusp of a Sunday return, though the head coach left the door open when asked if that was a possibility.
"Sure," he said, but not exactly in a warm and welcoming way. More on that in a minute. But first, here's how things broke down this afternoon.
Gonzalez went through team stretch, which included some three-quarter-speed sprints. When Vrabel broke off the group for special teams work, Gonzalez and fellow corner Carlton Davis worked off the JUGS machine; however, he wasn't being asked to backpedal or plant and accelerate hard for the ball.
What followed was a shadow tackling drill that the third-year pro didn't participate in, and then a ball security drill conducted at a snail's pace. Then we were sent on our merry way and left to wait for this afternoon's injury report (**team listed Gonzalez as limited**).
Gonzalez surely didn't provide much insight into what's been going on with his hamstring or his rehab since the injury occurred some seven weeks ago.
"Just excited to be back out there," he told us in front of his locker before practice. "Love football. This is what I do. It's been very challenging to be out for so long. But I mean, I'm focused on here now. So not really too worried about the injury, and not really gonna answer no questions on that. We're focused on the Steelers."
What followed was a series of questions to keep the cornerback engaged - again, we haven't gotten him on the record since he got hurt. I won't bore you with the insignificant details of what was asked or said, except for one last attempt at trying to unearth something new about the injury. It was straightforward, and something his coach may have hinted at a couple of weeks ago before course-correcting mid-answer. Were there any setbacks?
"I ain't speaking on that," said Gonzalez.
To his credit — and Vrabel has gone out of his way to mention this multiple times — the 23-year-old remained engaged in the meetings and was diligent in his rehabilitation. However, this clearly didn't go the way anyone expected, leading to an interesting exchange with Vrabel during his press conference that I will present to you as transcribed.
Q: Mike, one of the things we have to deal with when we're talking about injuries is, we're not supposed to speculate, but everybody speculates. You as coach, you don't say how long it's going to be, media do that. When something is imagined to take a shorter time and it takes longer, and I remember Phil [Perry] talking about this, we don't talk about timelines because we don't want to overestimate or underestimate, but is it hard for a player to not have his injury understood by the public?
MV: I don't know. I guess if everybody is looking for somebody to blame-- and I'm not -- I'm trying to just get them back as soon as they can get back and make sure that they're staying engaged, and then we have to decide how long that's going to be. Is there short-term IR? All these different things that come into it, but everybody wants to blame if it's not in some window that the doctor on Twitter suggests or recommends. Again, having had numerous injuries, they all recover differently. We've had players that have recovered differently, and it's like, “Well, why did one injury take this long, and is it the player not working hard to come back? Is it the trainer's fault? Is it this person's fault?” I've said this, the injury rate in a professional football league is 100%. If you play this game long enough, you are guaranteed to get injured. I don't think you can avoid that. I think it's just how you handle it and kind of go from there.
Q: It just doesn't help you guys to put it out there how long somebody is going to be out?
MV: Well, I mean, why? Because it could be shorter or it could be longer, and then when it doesn't meet the timeline, then somebody is going to come back and say, “Well, you said it was going to be two weeks.” I don't know, so instead of being wrong every single time, I choose to just try not to say a timeline. If they are back in a week, then great. If it takes a couple of weeks, then there we are. That goes for everything.
Q: From a player's perspective, you're like, “Holy crap, people are starting to think it’s taking too long. I wish I could tell people what's wrong with me so that they would understand.”
MV: And I think that that's great, in this case, maybe, but then it's going to be the next thing and the next thing. People are going to write. You've all got pads and recorders. You're going to write whatever you want to write. They're going to think whatever they want to think. I think, to that end, where would you stop? Where would you stop?
There is a fine line that comes with injury reporting, which is why I agree that putting timetables on them is a waste of time. However, that last question is something that I've experienced with players, having covered this league for as long as I have. When the outside world speculates, and the player is told by the team to shut up, and the coach sheds little to no light on the subject, it leads to even more speculation. Before you know it, the athlete gets labeled as "soft" or "injury-prone." Or, in Gonzalez's case, some may wonder if this is contract-related, even though he's not eligible for an extension until the off-season.
That's not right, but you and I both know that's the way this works. Now, Gonzalez, who came in with questions about his toughness and whether his body could handle the down-to-down physicality of the NFL, has this stacked on top of that. Ultimately, it won't cost him if he plays at the same level he did last year, but it's fair to wonder how quickly he can get up to speed and be that again. Based on today's nothing-burger, I'm not sure that Sunday will mark the beginning of that journey.