Broncos' treatment of Devontae Booker a rare win for NFL players

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — “You’re fine.”

“Just play through it.”

“Rub some dirt on it.”

These are just a few of the phrases that come to mind when thinking about the “tough” banter that has been associated with football for decades — from high school all the way to the NFL.

Until recently, showing weakness — in other words, an injury that isn’t blatantly obvious — in America’s most popular sport was quietly frowned upon. So much so, that it forced players to hide injuries from their own team’s training staff, or even worse, have them ignored by that very own training staff that is meant to help heal them.

Within the past decade, this narrative has shifted — significantly. With a $1 billion concussion lawsuit nearing an end, “Concussion” — a major motion picture released in 2015 — exposing the dangers of football-related head trauma and most recently The New York Times’ study finding 110 of 111 former NFL players had C.T.E, the dangers of playing football have been exposed, and the narrative has begun to shift.

New helmets, mid-game protocols, and mandatory pads have been just a few of the league’s immediate reactions to the relatively new information on the dangerous game. With that being said, the NFL, and football in general, still has a long way to go to change how dangerous the game can be for its players, specifically how they take care of their own.

On Thursday, the Denver Broncos proved they are on the right track.

During the team’s routine physical check up, as players arrived at the facility for the start of training camp, the Broncos discovered a fracture in running back Devontae Booker’s wrist, an injury he wasn’t fully aware of.

“Booker had a wrist injury in late OTAs. It was a small injury. It was a little sore, but it wasn’t serious,” head coach Vance Joseph said. “He went away for the summer and had trouble bench pressing. It was really swollen when he braced the bar. So again, nothing of it. He was doing his camp physical on Wednesday, and he was still a little sore, nothing serious. We x-rayed him, and it was a wrist fracture.”

During OTAs, Booker thought he just simply had a “football knick” on his hand, he was not hiding the injury from the team.

“It’s obviously been there for a couple of months,” Joseph said. “We didn’t know; he didn’t know. So we x-rayed him, and he needs surgery. He is having surgery Friday. He’s going to be out six weeks, and that’s the story, that’s it.”

While that certainly seems like the responsible — and to be fair, the obvious route to take with a person — the Broncos didn’t have to sit Booker for six weeks. In fact, the injury didn’t hinder his ability to play football this year or for the rest of his career.

On Thursday, the day before his surgery, Booker joined his team on the practice field, and while he didn’t participate, he was casually throwing the football at times — showing that the running back truly isn’t affected by the fracture right now.

“He can play with this, but the concern is his long-term health,” Joseph explained. “That bone can die, and his hand can be kind of messed up forever. We didn’t want that for the kid.”

Before the injury was discovered on Wednesday, Joseph said Booker would receive a significant workload with the first-team during the season.  The decision by the Broncos on Booker’s health was solely based on his long-term well being, not what was best for the team at the moment.

With the decision to put Booker’s health above what was best for the team, the Broncos got a win for the NFL, in a time when it needs it the most, setting an example to the rest of the league on how to treat its most valuable assets.