It is interesting that reporters try to predict a Super Bowl win based on the injury score of a team. Clearly, if it was this easy, doctors would be betting on the game outcome and winning. As far as I know, however, no sports doctor is retiring based on their Super Bowl predictions.
There is so much variation in the degree of injury for a specific diagnosis and how quickly a player can rehab and return to play. As an example, let’s discuss the meniscal surgery that kept one of the Kansas Chiefs, Willie Gay, out of the Super Bowl. Surgery for a meniscal tear could be a 15 minute meniscectomy with a very quick (2-6 week recovery) – or it could be a meniscal repair, where we sew the meniscus, limit post-operative weight bearing, and rehab the knee for 4-6 months.
