To be fair, high ankle sprains are very lingering issues. From what I’ve read, most who experience them have to be in a boot for 12 or more weeks. MT was back on the field after 7 weeks. There’s no way he was healed from his injury which is why he needed surgery. More likely than not the injury was complicated further due to bringing him back too soon. I empathize with MT and totally understand why he did what he did. Doesn’t mean I approve, but all this talk about he did Sean, Drew, etc wrong is total BS. I love Drew as much as anyone, but he retired about 2-3 seasons too late. This team wasn’t going anywhere in the postseason with him. And Thomas could have had his career ruined by being brought back before he was supposed to.

Fair enough. I’ve had ankle surgery too so I know of the difficulties in rehab. But when you choose to leave your coach/teammates/training staff out of the process of you rehabbing you invite criticism of your choices…don’t you?
It seems like people just want to forget that he kept the team in the dark about his status. That’s a big deal IMO.

Fair enough. I’ve had ankle surgery too so I know of the difficulties in rehab. But when you choose to leave your coach/teammates/training staff out of the process of you rehabbing you invite criticism of your choices…don’t you?
It seems like people just want to forget that he kept the team in the dark about his status. That’s a big deal IMO.

I can agree with most of this. But I’m assuming MT was POed about his rushing back and I feel it was warranted. I can admit it wasn’t the right or most mature thing to do. It was handled wrong on both sides in my honest opinion and everyone should recognize that.

Each season is unique. I look back on past seasons and ask “what could have been?”. What if we get the PI against LA? What if Minnesota doesn’t get the Miracle. What if Thomas was available last year? We will never know because he chose to NOT work with the team. Maybe it made a difference, maybe not.

I’ve said before that I want him playing for the Saints. But Why is it bad for me to look back and say “I wish he would have kept the team abreast of his status?”. Maybe they would have made the post season if they would have known he wasn’t ready and made allowances? It cracks me up that we have the WR corps we have now and people want to forget how bad it was last year at least partially thanks to Mike.

It’s not bad at all. My perception of your take is that you’re putting all the blame on MT which I think is wrong. Looking back and knowing what I know, I don’t think he would have been able to play very much to make a difference regardless of communicating more.

The blame I put on Thomas is not keeping in touch with the team. It cost them in two ways; 1) Caught them off guard and undermanned at the WR position and 2) possibly could have been back sooner and/or not had the re-injury if he would have followed team advice (or at least getting their opinions). Bottom line is not keeping in touch with your team regarding a major injury is a stupid and selfish move.

It’s also a selfish move to bring a player back in half the time it takes to heal from an injury that threatens to end his career at his age. It’s unwarranted animosity.