BENGAL-MANIA

 Yes, they lost again.  This time (19-17) to the NY Giants who are about as woeful as the Bengals.  I can't find much to look forward to this season.  The Bengals play the Dolphins this week in Miami.  The fins are 11-1/2 point favorites.  

I hear that Joe Burrow flew to California on Monday for a probable knee operation on Wednesday.  Let's hope all goes well.  The standard line from the doctors is that this type of injury can take a person 9 months to a year to get back to normal - if there ever is such a thing again.  Since I don't feel much like talking about the Bengals, I thought I'd give you a refresher course on the knee that Joe injured.  

He has torn his ACL and MCL and, maybe, more.  You've no doubt heard of these injuries before but you might not have known exactly what they are.  Here goes.  We'll start with the basics and language.  Four bones are involved;  the femur (the large upper leg bone), the tibia (the large lower leg bone), the fibula (the small lower leg bone) and the patella (the knee cap).  Tendons hold muscles to bone and they are probably not involved here except the tendon connecting the quadriceps muscle above the knee to the tibia runs over the patella keeping the kneecap in place.  Ligaments connect one bone to another bone. Cartilage is a substance that protects bones at moving positions.  Meniscus is a special cartilage, shaped like a crescent, found only in the knee where all the bones meet.  Cruciate means shaped like a cross.  Posterior means located behind or in the rear.  Anterior means located before or in front.  Medial means, you guessed it, in the middle.  Lateral means on the side and Collateral means on the outside.

You got that so far?  Well, that's about all there is to it.  Our quarterback, Joe, tore his ACL which stands for Anterior Cruciate Ligament.  There are two cruciate ligaments (forming a cross) connecting the femur to the tibia.  He tore the one in front.  I've heard he also tore the MCL which stands for Medial Collateral Ligament.  Here, medial refers to inside - toward the middle of the body.  You see, the 'C' here stands for Collateral.  He may also have torn the LCL - now you can figure that one out.  All these tears will be sewn together by a surgeon.  Sometimes, a piece of ligament from a cadaver may be used to rejoin the pieces.  

Often the meniscus  as well as the cartilage get injured in these accidents  In either case, there's not much that can be done about them except smooth them out and throw away torn pieces.  That cartilage will wear away on it's own with old age and give you arthritis.

WHO DEY!