The Tennessee Titans have nothing to do with this article, but it's a photo full of holiday energy - which this article does not have (Photo courtesy of the Tennessee Titans).
I wanted to encapsulate NFL players and their Christmas spirit in one article. Where did that lead me? Lacerated kidneys. I blame Jim McMahon for the trajectory of my research.
Why So Many NFL Players?
Lacerated kidneys, or torn tissue in the kidney, are common in contact sports. This is because lacerated kidneys are often the result of a hard blow in the abdomen and/or back area.
It is a common injury in people who have had traumatic injuries like falling and car and biking accidents (or playing football).
Kidneys are the third solid organ that is most likely to be injured as a result of abdominal blows to the abdomen.
Who Are These NFL Players?
There’s many. But we’ve boiled it down to these six NFL players.
Rocky Bleier
Bleier is a war hero and an NFL star who was born in Applegate, Wisconsin, in 1946. The most quaintly named city in the USA. Bleier did so many cool things that there will be another article about him in the near future.
One of the less cool things about the former Pittsburgh Steelers running back is the lacerated kidney he faced while he played for Notre Dame. He ended up in the hospital after peeing blood (one of the most common side effects) after being taken down by defensive end Bubba Smith.
It wasn’t Rocky’s worst injury, and it surely did not end his career. It couldn’t have been a pleasant experience, though.
Jim McMahon
Jim McMahon is another character that warrants an article that focuses on something other than his kidney. He also played in the league with a broken neck (and wasn’t aware of it), which you can read about here. After being sandwiched between two Raiders defensemen in 1984, McMahon was lucky to be alive. Which he was – but severely injured.
In an era so unlike ours, he played three more plays after the hit. He couldn’t call out plays loud enough for his teammates to hear them, so he finally had to get off the field. Jim was in the locker room, peeing blood with urine the color of grape juice.
He somehow managed to wear his uniform, pee, and bend over all at once while being unable to speak. He was in so much pain. The QB ended up going to the hospital for 10 days and sat out the rest of the season. This was likely a more significantly lacerated kidney.
What was the hardest part for McMahon? Not drinking alcohol for three weeks. The longest duration he had abstained since shortly after he was born. Is Jim a member of my family, and I just didn’t know it?
Andrew Luck
Andrew Luck is known for a lot of things – the least of those things would be his notoriety due to his lacerated kidney. However, he appears to have avoided the hospital in his recovery and required a very short period of time to heal.
He was feeling “a little sore,” which sounds like “a little” bit of an underestimate after a win against the Broncos in 2015. Further examination revealed he had “a little” bit of a lacerated kidney. And a tear of his abdominal muscle.
Another example of an absence of luck for the quarterback.
Miles Austin
NFL players aren’t built like the rest of us. Miles Austin wasn’t aware he had a kidney laceration in 2014. That was until he peed post-game and saw the telltale blood. The wide receiver was a little distracted by the fact that he caught Johnny Manziel’s first completion ever. However, being squished like a pancake by a Buffalo Bills defenseman left him lacerated in the kidney.
As a man in his 30s with a lacerated kidney, Austin was going to be left on the cutting room floor had the Eagles not eyed him. Chip Kelly offered him and his lacerated kidney a $1 million, 1-year contract.
This was after Miles month-long stay at a Buffalo hospital hooked up to an IV, eating nothing, and drinking everything. His pee would go from red to light pink and back again for days on end.
Six weeks after he left the hospital, he was cleared to play again. Retirement wasn’t even on the wide receivers’ minds. That’s that NFL players’ energy.
C.J. Gardner-Johnson
Remember how mean, or… spirited C.J. Gardner-Johnson is? He fought his own teammates while he was a member of the New Orleans Saints.
That spirit has allowed C.J. to play in the league for as long as he has. Injuries have started to slow him down in recent times, though. A lacerated kidney had Gardner-Johnson down “indefinitely,” as the Eagles described it, or for five weeks, as everyone else did in 2022.
Other injuries have sidelined C.J. throughout the 2023 season, and it’s sad to see. May he and his kidneys return to full capacity next season.
Luke Musgrave
Musgrave’s lacerated kidney is probably most present in NFL fans minds. The rookie TE sustained the kidney injury during week 11 after he fell post-catch.
In an ill-advised quote, Musgrave said: “I knew something was probably wrong, but I mean, that’s kind of football,” Musgrave said. “You play through pain and then it usually hurts a little more after the game.”
The peeing blood after the game at home clued him to the seriousness of his injury. He’s still out in week 16, but he will come back as soon as he can. Doctors save this man from himself; he’s too young to know better. C.J. will tell him that injuries pile up.
The Prognosis For A Lacerated Kidney In An NFL Player
NFL players have to be more careful when it comes to kidney injuries than the average individual who faces a one-time accident. Multiple hard blows to the abdomen and back can happen each and every game.
If it’s a minor kidney injury—in other words, the tear isn’t that bad—NFL players will typically take between 6 and 8 weeks to recover. If a kidney is severely damaged, the player will need surgery. They’ll typically stay off the field in that case for 6 to 12 months.
A healed kidney is more predisposed to injury than a never-before-lacerated kidney. It could happen again. The healing time needs to be prolonged for the overall health of the individual.
If a kidney is so lacerated that it needs to be removed, which is rare, a person will have to quit contact sports. The NFL does not allow players to only play with one of any organ that the body typically has two of.
If that didn’t give you the ick, make sure to catch some of my other articles related to medicine here.
