Post by TheShadow on Dec 12, 2003 22:34:01 GMT -5
www.sacbee.com
By Gregg Bell -- Bee Staff Writer
ALAMEDA -- The ragged Raiders should have earned their own hospital wing by
now.
Starting right guard Mo Collins is the latest to schedule season-ending
surgery. The 350-plus-pound Collins will miss Sunday's home game against the
Baltimore Ravens while awaiting his operation next week to repair a
chronically pained left knee.
Raiders coach Bill Callahan calling his linemen the key to this horrid
season way back in training camp was indeed prescient. Left tackle Barry
Sims is the only Raiders offensive lineman to start in every game.
At least Collins, 27, will not have to go far to ask for directions to the
team's outpatient surgery site. Safety Rod Woodson is having surgery on his
left knee next week, his second operation in three months. Reserve offensive
lineman Matt Stinchcomb had a shoulder operation there last month, and
rookie defensive end Sam Williams underwent left knee surgery in August.
NFL Most Valuable Player Rich Gannon had season-ending surgery, too, to
repair the torn labrum cartilage in his throwing shoulder. Gannon's surgery
was done in his home area of Minneapolis, by the same doctor who operated on
the shoulder in 1995.
Collins got a hearty laugh out of Callahan saying that he and center Barret
Robbins (also out of Sunday's game with a sore right knee) have
"degenerative" knee conditions.
"Man ... everybody in the NFL has got something in every part of his body
that is degenerative," Collins said. "That's a nice way of saying you're a
veteran."
No TV again -- Umpteen thousands are deciding to shop instead of pay up to
$91 per ticket to see the last-place Raiders and first-place Ravens at the
Coliseum. As a result, the sixth local television blackout in seven Raiders
home games will happen. It will be the 48th blackout in 70 Coliseum games
since the team moved back from Los Angeles in 1995.
By Gregg Bell -- Bee Staff Writer
ALAMEDA -- The ragged Raiders should have earned their own hospital wing by
now.
Starting right guard Mo Collins is the latest to schedule season-ending
surgery. The 350-plus-pound Collins will miss Sunday's home game against the
Baltimore Ravens while awaiting his operation next week to repair a
chronically pained left knee.
Raiders coach Bill Callahan calling his linemen the key to this horrid
season way back in training camp was indeed prescient. Left tackle Barry
Sims is the only Raiders offensive lineman to start in every game.
At least Collins, 27, will not have to go far to ask for directions to the
team's outpatient surgery site. Safety Rod Woodson is having surgery on his
left knee next week, his second operation in three months. Reserve offensive
lineman Matt Stinchcomb had a shoulder operation there last month, and
rookie defensive end Sam Williams underwent left knee surgery in August.
NFL Most Valuable Player Rich Gannon had season-ending surgery, too, to
repair the torn labrum cartilage in his throwing shoulder. Gannon's surgery
was done in his home area of Minneapolis, by the same doctor who operated on
the shoulder in 1995.
Collins got a hearty laugh out of Callahan saying that he and center Barret
Robbins (also out of Sunday's game with a sore right knee) have
"degenerative" knee conditions.
"Man ... everybody in the NFL has got something in every part of his body
that is degenerative," Collins said. "That's a nice way of saying you're a
veteran."
No TV again -- Umpteen thousands are deciding to shop instead of pay up to
$91 per ticket to see the last-place Raiders and first-place Ravens at the
Coliseum. As a result, the sixth local television blackout in seven Raiders
home games will happen. It will be the 48th blackout in 70 Coliseum games
since the team moved back from Los Angeles in 1995.