Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby is one of the best football players on the planet. He’s also incredibly tough. That was never more evident than when he overcame a “doubtful” injury designation to play against AFC West nemesis Kansas City this past Sunday.
Crosby recorded a sack of Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes, and even though the Raiders lost 31-17, they put up a better fight than expected much of the way. With a bye week right after and chances of being KC slim, you couldn’t blame Crosby for taking a week off.
But even after a possibly life-threatening injury situation, he had his knee drained for a third time on game day to make sure all the bacteria had cleared out and went through an on-field workout just to get the go-ahead to suit up.
I did some of my own research on what Crosby was dealing with. Then I was like, “Oh, a doctor on X summed it all up in excellent detail! Let’s go with that!”
Again, I’m no doctor. What I do know for a fact is that it’s pretty hard to play professional football without one of your legs, or if you’re, you know, deceased. This doc is asserting that both those outcomes might’ve been on the table for Maxx Crosby this week. And he…uhh…played in an NFL game on Sunday in spite of all that?
When you start off your entire story with, “But yeah, this week was f*cked,” as Crosby did on his podcast, you know you’re in for something wild.
Crosby spoke about feeling deathly ill early in the week, how he was bedridden, had to keep getting his knee drained, and then got the news that bacteria was discovered in the fluid that was drained. He explained how it’s an injury he’s dealt with since Week 2 at Buffalo. Talk about the Raiders’ bye week coming at the most perfect of times.
I know we hear the cliché around this time of year in the NFL that “everyone’s dealing with something” or “everybody’s playing hurt” and so forth. Whatever the f*ck just happened to Maxx Crosby is on an entirely other level.
Look at how he was moving, though, on that third-quarter sack of Mahomes! WTF??
The only case of sepsis from an NFL injury I can recall is Alex Smith when he had his catastrophic injury in Washington and had to get all those surgeries. Smith somehow came back for a brief time, but retired soon after. Obviously those are two very different circumstances and injuries.
It’s just…I don’t have anything else even in the realm of what Crosby went through to compare his situation to.
Let’s just hope Crosby can keep that knee in check the rest of the way. He’s such a joy to watch, but man, I don’t know how he worked his way back into good enough shape to be ready for kickoff. Never mind how he looked good enough to convince the coaches and GM to sign off on letting him play.
“What a beast” doesn’t come close to doing Crosby’s toughness justice.
