Doug Gottlieb: “I was watching the Ravens and Steelers game and… I don’t know, it felt kind of weird. I got the sense that Lamar Jackson was ‘hurt’, I didn’t get the sense that Lamar Jackson was ‘injured.’ So what’s the difference? Well, if you’re ‘hurt’ you get out there, if you’re ‘injured’ you go see a doctor — you’re on the IR. It seems like this a sign without him actually saying ‘hey, I’m not playing until the playoffs because of my contract’. We have enough other data to think this is kind of weird here. It was a ‘mild strain’, we were told it wasn’t that big a deal, it didn’t require any surgery, there was no ‘out 4-6 weeks’... I have no doubt that he hurt his knee, it’s the idea of ‘hurt’ or ‘injured’? I’ve heard at least one person on Fox Sports Radio say he’s never going to play for the Ravens again. You're saying he’s not going to play in the playoffs?? Of course he’s going to play in the playoffs. He’s under contract for likely the next two years, and there is no negotiation with franchise tags. I hear people say ‘THEY DON’T WANT TO PAY HIM’. Yes, they do, they just don’t want a five-year full guaranteed Deshaun Watson contract, which right now doesn’t look like it’s the greatest contract in the world. Personally, I think Lamar is making a point. This is Lamar without a net, this is Lamar energized by writers and fans. He doesn’t have an agent, he doesn’t have a net, he doesn’t have someone to tell him ‘you’re really going to sit out five regular season games to make a point?’— but it feels that way. It feels like he’s trying to make a point: ‘GO AHEAD, WIN WITHOUT ME.’ It’s a valid point. He’s a great talent and a really good player, but there is nothing about his play over the last year and a half that would tell you that he’s a GREAT player, or an elite quarterback. He’s better than Tyler Huntley but is he $50 million a year guaranteed over the next five years better than Tyler Huntley? My answer would be ‘NO.’ All these long-term deals, tell me the good one?? I’m not accusing him of ‘faking’ it, I think he legitimately hurt his knee and when you’re a crazy athletic quarterback you want to be right before you go back out there. But I’m also guessing that no competitor – and Lamar Jackson is a competitor – no fierce competitor is going to miss Steeler Week because your knee hurts, unless you’re trying to prove a bigger point. It feels like something is weird going on.” (Full Segment Above)
Listen to Doug Gottlieb discuss why he thinks there is something ‘weird’ going on with the playing status of Lamar Jackson, as Doug wonders if Lamar could be embellishing his knee injury out of spite for the Ravens franchise who has still not given him a long-term contract.
Check out the segment above as Gottlieb details the difference between ‘hurt’ and ‘injured’, and explains why Jackson could be ‘trying to prove a point’ with his enigmatic absence that is still without a timetable for return.
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