Talented running back has been hurt too much to believe he ever won't be. Ryan Mathews may very well have the season the Chargers hoped, even expected. Maybe he’ll be back in mid-September, still get 300 carries and another 50 receptions, 1,500 yards or so, maybe 18 touchdowns. He’s good enough. Definitely good enough. But why would we have any faith that will happen? Word from the Chargers is that Mathews’ broken collarbone suffered at the end of his only carry of Thursday night’s preseason opener was not as bad as it might have been. Mathews had surgery on Friday and is expected to return in four to six weeks. The team is preparing to be without him for at least the first game of the regular season and possibly more. What if his clavicle has some sort of super miracle healing and he's back for the Sept. 10 season opener at Oakland? Does it matter when he returns? Won’t we be wondering when he’ll have to leave again? Won’t we be bracing ourselves that the next hit or the next misstep will result in the next injury? He’ll be out of breath at the end of every long run. We’ll be holding our breath. What happens to those who’ve been saddled with the injury-prone label is that we can’t have faith in them. Too often, injury history becomes injury present and bleeds into injury forever. That’s what seems to happen with the Chargers all too often of late, especially with promising young players. Ah, for the love of Buster Davis! When will this injury insanity end? Chargers drafts have produced fewer impact players than they should have. Too many picks in later rounds didn’t pan out, for sure. But would we think those drafts were so bad if a trio of first-round picks -- Davis (2007), Larry English (2009) and Mathews (2010) – weren’t perpetually injured. I get that “if” is the most-used word in the language of losers. It is what it is. They’ve drafted guys who haven’t been able to play. But they weren’t busts in the purest sense of the word. Davis was extremely talented. Yet if you didn’t see practices or one of the couple hundred snaps he played over four seasons, then you wouldn’t know. I still say English can be a solid pass rusher, but his hamstring injury that sidelined him the first two weeks of training camp was the latest in a string of injuries that have limited him to 29 games in three seasons. Mathews played the equivalent of half his rookie season due to an ankle injury. Groin and calf injuries caused him to miss two games last year, though he still ranked 10th in the league with 1,091 rushing yards (a 4.9-yard average per carry) and seventh with 1,546 scrimmage yards. When Ray Rice pulled out of the Pro Bowl, Mathews even got a last-minute trip to Hawaii. This was to be the year he truly became elite. All we heard about – and the evidence seemed ample – was how hard he worked in the offseason. Teammates expressed sympathy over the past 24 hours, saying they know how much it meant to Mathews that he felt he was in a position to distance himself from the inconsistent start to his career. You do have to feel badly for him. I’ve enjoyed talking with him virtually every chance I’ve had over the past two-plus years. He's humble and honest. He wants to be better. He's improved each season, working on the things he knew he needed to. But this is the big leagues. Dude has to stay on the field for any of it to matter. Ryan Mathews, like Larry English, is not a bust. Yet. We’ll see. Link
Holy crap, even the biggest AJ/Norv/Chargers Management suckup I've ever seen is even souring on Matthews and the rest of the team's apparent "puss-itis" over the last several years. Welcome back to the real world Acee, welcome to our suffering.
He's decided not to be AJ's bitch anymore because his kids were being ridiculed. Gehlkin has taken his spot as the regional YES man.
I was thinking that he got permission to do this. Attacking an injured player here is like feeding meat to starving dogs. Not really much of an attack on AJ though
You guys need to take a chill pill on Acee. In the past he was the UT's Chargers beat writer. If someone said something or did something he wrote about it. It wasn't his job to give an opinion on what was being said or done, only to report it. Now he is a columnist, like Nick Canepa or like Tim Sullivan used to be before the hardcore right wing republican owner of the paper had him fired. Now Acee writes columns where he is allowed to give his opinion on things that are said and done. Reporter - columnist. Big difference.
And you know this how? Oz if he asks a question or AJ tells him something it is his job as a reporter to write about what was said. It isn't a reporter's job to agree or disagree with the story, only to report it. That doesn't make it his opinion During the first Gulf War did you think Peter Arnett was reporting the news from Baghdad or do you think he was he a spokesman for Saddam?
You made this easy for me reporting isn't being a stenographer for power. It's reporting the truth and jumping into the fray to get it. Of course anyone can say anything about what is what but what you are asking for is to be mislead.
I'm not asking to be mislead. I read what acee reports and use my own mind to decide. I don't accuse acee of being AJ's mouthpiece for reporting what he see's or is told.
I lost all faith in Acees reporting a few years back, dude does what he has to and walks a fine line to keep his perks and connections with the management IMO He is still a Tool!
