In the fourth quarter of Sunday's game against the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs TE Brad Cottam caught a pass and after being hit by a defender fell right on his head. The spill looked nasty but said after the game that he was fine.
Two days later, and the Chiefs placed him on injured reserve for a crack cervical vertebra. He still had full movement in his arms and legs.
Today doctors performed surgery to repair the crack and things went smoothly.
"Everything that I’ve heard is that (the surgery) went very well," Chiefs head coach Todd Haley said today. "He was uncomfortable there for a couple days when he wasn’t in a position to really move around a bunch, even though he could. Just from a safety standpoint in keeping him in a stable position."
While we're disappointed that his season is over because, as Haley says, he was starting to come into his own, it's good to hear that surgery went well.
"He was the most disappointed about it," Haley said. "We were all pretty excited about Brad. He was a guy no different that players like Jamaal (Charles) who have fought through some adversity. Things that haven’t gone exactly the way that they would have planned or that we would have planned. He was a guy that I was getting excited about and am still excited about."
We wish Mr. Cottam a speedy and safe recovery.