For Everett’s Lewis Cine, a devastating injury 4,000 miles and an ocean away
The injury was so bad that Cine required immediate surgery on Sunday to prep for the main surgery on Tuesday. Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said he is hopeful that Cine can play football again, but the fact that the question was even posed to him is startling.
Cine, the Vikings’ first-round pick this year out of Georgia, usually has his agents, mentor, and/or family members in the stands, but he didn’t have any supporters there for him in London. His agents met him in London later this past week, and Cine was scheduled to fly back to Minneapolis this weekend.
Get Point After
“Things have been wild, but everything from surgery to my mental [health] is going well,” Cine texted on Thursday. “I will get better from this and use it as fuel.”
The injury shined a light on two important questions: What happens when a player suffers a significant injury in an international game? And was this another injury that happened because the game was played on artificial turf instead of natural grass?
As far as the medical care, by all accounts it has been top-notch for Cine. It starts with Dr. Jim Ellis, the NFL’s director of emergency preparedness and medical coordinator for international games. Since both teams are from out of town, Ellis makes sure everything runs smoothly between the teams, local doctors, hospitals, and EMTs in London.
Cine was sent to Cleveland Clinic London and had surgery on Tuesday by Dr. Aswinkumar Vasireddy, lead surgeon of the orthopedic trauma unit. Cine was cared for by a team of doctors, and a member of the Vikings’ medical staff remained in London with Cine. There is optimism that the surgery went well.
Everett’s Lewis Cine remains in London after suffering a gruesome injury.Frank Augstein/Associated Press
“The fact we’ve been able to kind of limit any of the post-injury damage that can sometimes take place with an open wound like that, I know they feel great about the work that was done,” O’Connell said.
The doctors, Vikings, NFL, and the NFL Players Association remained in constant contact with Cine’s agents and inner circle via conference calls.
“The NFL, the Vikings, the NFLPA, everybody working together — honestly, it’s been kind of amazing,” said Carlos Ruiz, a student engagement supervisor at Everett High and a mentor for Cine. “The Vikings GM called us right away. The trainers, the doctors, they’ve just done a great job communicating every step of the way. It has been very, very good. I wish everything in the world was like this.”
While the injury is fresh and Cine has a long road to recovery, he and his people are hopeful that he can resume his career next season.
“He’s in good spirits,” Ruiz said. “We just have to break down all the little things — where is he going to be for this month? Next month? What are we doing after that? All those things, and just go from there.”
The Vikings also made sure that Cine had emotional support during his week in the hospital. Cine thought he was taking a Zoom call from O’Connell on Wednesday, Cine’s 23rd birthday, but was surprised by his entire team.
“It was emotional,” safety Josh Metellus said. “It was good to see him smile. It was more happy than anything. We sang him ‘Happy Birthday’ as a team.”
The other issue is whether Cine’s injury was, if not caused by, at least exacerbated by the playing surface at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The CBS broadcast highlighted the stadium’s unique system that allows soccer to be played on grass, but NFL games to be played on artificial turf.
The issue with artificial surfaces is they don’t have as much give as natural grass. The NFL has 16 teams with artificial turf, 15 teams with natural grass, and a hybrid surface at Lambeau Field.
Injuries like Sterling Shepard’s at MetLife Stadium have put a spotlight on artificial surfaces in football.FRANK FRANKLIN II/Associated Press
“I don’t think it’s fair to say the injury definitely happened because it was on artificial turf, but I think it’s fair to ask the question,” said Dr. David Chao, formerly the Chargers’ team doctor for 17 seasons. “With grip and the way his leg snapped with a harder sport turf surface, as opposed to the give in the grass, I think it’s a fair question to ask if it could have been a contributing factor.”
The use of artificial turf has been a contentious issue in recent seasons. In 2020, NFLPA president J.C. Tretter called for every stadium to have natural grass, while Saquon Barkley and Sterling Shepard have called out the artificial surface at MetLife Stadium after suffering noncontact ACL injuries. A 2019 study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine concluded that “playing on artificial turf increases the risk of lower-body injury … due to synthetic turf’s lack of ability to release an athlete’s shoe.”
NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller said this past week that all playing surfaces are jointly approved by the NFL and NFLPA, and they track data on injuries and surfaces.
“We have a joint committee on field surfaces that spends an inordinate amount of time studying exactly these issues,” Miller said. “Big picture, the lower-extremity injury rates between natural grass and synthetic surfaces over the past few years has decreased to the point where it’s almost nonexistent right now.”
But the issue of artificial vs. grass fields will continue to be under the microscope this season.
TAKING ACTION
Spotters on watch for concussions
The Dolphins wasted no time last week, ruling out Tua Tagovailoa Monday for Sunday’s game at the Jets. After the vicious hits that Tagovailoa took in the previous game against Cincinnati, and the uproar over the NFL’s concussion protocols and whether Tagovailoa had any business playing against the Bengals, there was no way the NFL or the Dolphins were going to let him play this Sunday. It wouldn’t surprise me if he is kept out an extra week beyond whenever he passes through the concussion protocol.
With all eyes on the concussion spotters last weekend, 14 players in addition to Tagovailoa were ruled out with concussions. Nine of those 14 were ruled out for this weekend, while four players are questionable, and Giants safety Julian Love passed out of the concussion protocol by Friday.
If Thursday night’s Broncos-Colts game was an indication, the NFL is going to be aggressive this Sunday in authorizing concussion spotters to stop the game. In the final minutes of regulation, with the clock ticking and both teams scrambling, the concussion spotter stopped the game to get a check for Broncos linebacker Nik Bonitto. He later reentered the game.
ETC.
Hackett, Wilson not on same page
It’s been tough sledding for Russell Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett in Denver.Jack Dempsey/Associated Press
The struggles of first-year Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett have been well documented in this space. His team ranks 31st in points (15 per game), last in the red zone (three touchdowns in 14 trips), and his game management has bordered on clueless. It’s mystifying that he was the offensive coordinator of the 2017 Jaguars, who went to the AFC Championship game, yet looks so bad now. Perhaps Hackett is another example of a good coordinator who can’t translate to head coach.
But what became clear in the Broncos’ 12-9 loss to the Colts on Thursday night is that Russell Wilson deserves as much, if not more, blame. He used to be one of the best deep passers in the game, but Wilson completed just 2 of 14 passes of 10 yards or more on Thursday. Wilson missed open receivers all night, flung a head-scratching interception in the red zone, and foolishly tried to be the hero at the end of regulation, throwing an interception in the end zone instead of running the ball and settling for a clinching field goal.
The Broncos’ final play was a disaster — a shotgun, drop-back pass from 1 yard away instead of a handoff or a play-action rollout for Wilson. It was so obvious that commentators Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit called for it. But Wilson threw incomplete — after missing a wide-open K.J. Hamler — and Hackett threw Wilson under the bus.
“We put the decision in Russ’s hands, a play he liked,” Hackett said. “And it didn’t work out.”
Hackett and the team seem to be catering too much to Wilson and letting him make key decisions. Wilson just got $124 million fully guaranteed over the next three years, and his contract is essentially untradeable. He is supposed to be the Broncos’ savior, but Wilson is putting up the worst numbers of his career, and his teammates are openly frustrated that he’s not getting them the ball. Now Hackett is pointing fingers at Wilson, probably because Hackett realizes he’s expendable and Wilson is not.
Meanwhile, Geno Smith leads the NFL in completion percentage and he’s third in passer rating. And Seattle got two first-round picks from the Broncos. Pete Carroll and the Seahawks are looking pretty smart.
Lions ready to roar
A few notes on the 1-3 Lions after speaking with T.J. Lang, a 10-year NFL offensive lineman (2009-18) who now is part of the Lions’ broadcast team:
▪ The Lions come to Foxborough on Sunday with the NFL’s No. 1 scoring offense at 35 points per game, and Jared Goff is tied for the NFL lead with 11 touchdown passes. This comes a year after the Lions finished 25th in points per game (19.1) and Goff threw 19 touchdown passes all season.
And Lions fans can begrudgingly thank Matt Patricia for the improvement. The Lions’ fireworks this year have been produced by new offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who replaced Anthony Lynn.
Johnson goes back to 2012 with Dan Campbell, when they were both lower-level coaches with the Dolphins. But Patricia brought Johnson to Detroit in 2019, after seven seasons in Miami. Campbell retained Johnson as tight ends coach when he came aboard in 2021, and promoted Johnson to offensive coordinator this year, calling him a “rock star.” If Goff and the Lions’ offense keep it up, Johnson won’t stay an offensive coordinator for long.
“Dan told us he knew Ben at a young age had a really bright future,” Lang said. “They told us a story of in the offseason, Ben just spending a couple days just locked in a hotel room with Jared Goff, going over plays and throwing things up on the chalkboard and figuring out what they liked, what they didn’t like. Ben’s a very passionate guy, dedicated guy, and obviously off to a hell of a start.”
▪ Sunday’s game will be a tougher challenge for Johnson and the Lions, however. All four of their games have been played in domes — three at Ford Field and one in Minnesota. Let’s see if the Lions can run a track meet when playing outside, in wind and chillier weather, against a Bill Belichick defense.
▪ For Lang, who played eight years with the Packers and two with the Lions, Sunday’s game will be his second trip to Gillette Stadium in the regular season. His first was a Patriots-Packers game in 2010, i.e. the Matt Flynn game.
“No, that’s the Dan Connolly game,” Lang corrected me, referencing the 71-yard kickoff return by the Patriots’ starting right guard. “I remember the whole sideline being so [mad], but us linemen were sitting over there kind of laughing, just tipping our cap. There was always a little bit of jealousy wishing you would get to do that, but it was so freaking cool, just seeing him rumble down the field on a kick return.”
Patriots punter Jake Bailey has struggled at times this season.Stew Milne/Associated Press
Belichick called the Lions’ Lions punter Jack Fox “one of the best punters in the league,” and it shined a light on how Patriots punter Jake Bailey is decidedly not one of the best in the league this season. Bailey, who signed a new four-year, $13.5 million deal in August, ranks 29th out of 29 among qualifying players in net average, at a paltry 34.5 yards per game. Bailey’s four touchbacks in just 16 punts are the most in the NFL, and the 13.2-yard average return by opponents ranks sixth-highest in the NFL. In 2020, Bailey’s 45.6-yard net average was the second-highest in NFL history (Fox’s 44.8 from that year ranks third all time). But Bailey hasn’t come close to replicating his success in the two seasons since … The Bears have been the NFL’s winningest team at the end of each of the last 102 NFL seasons. But the Packers are now tied with the Bears with 785 regular-season wins. Since Brett Favre arrived in 1992, the Packers have 78 more wins than the Bears … With last Monday’s win, Kyle Shanahan has won seven straight regular-season meetings over his buddy Sean McVay of the Rams. But McVay got the one that counts, last year’s NFC Championship game … One recent trend is for teams playing in London not to choose a bye week immediately afterward. The Vikings and Saints both have 1 p.m. games this week, while the Giants and Packers will do the same next week, and the Jaguars in November. But the Broncos, Seahawks, and Buccaneers will take a bye after their games in Europe … It’s probably a chicken-and-egg situation, but Josh Allen is 11-17 in his career when completing less than 60 percent of passes, and 34-9 when completing 60 percent or better … Cooper Kupp once again leads the NFL with 42 catches through four games. Next are Stefon Diggs and Tyreek Hill with 31 catches. Kupp is fifth with 402 yards, and has scored three touchdowns. But his average is way down — 9.6 yards per catch, compared with 13.4 last year and 12.5 for his career. Kupp isn’t getting any help, as he has 40 percent of the Rams’ receiving yards. Their second-highest receiver is tight end Tyler Higbee (26 catches for 244 yards), and Allen Robinson, their big free agent signing to replace Robert Woods, has just nine grabs for 95 yards and a touchdown … The Bengals’ defense has allowed one touchdown in its last 31 drives … Great stat from the NFL on Cowboys guard Zack Martin: In nine seasons, he has more Pro Bowls (seven) than holding penalties (five) … The season isn’t over for 1-3 teams, though Sunday is pretty close to a must-win. Last year, the Patriots, Eagles, and Steelers overcame 1-3 starts to reach the playoffs. But since 1990, only 11 of 156 teams that started 1-4 made the postseason.
Ben Volin can be reached at [email protected].