Man Down
A member of the 49ers staff “popped” their hammy chasing Monday night’s smoke-bomb streaker
By now, you (and about five million other people) have seen the video of Los Angeles Rams linebacker Bobby Wagner blowing up a smoke-bomb toting field invader during Monday Night Football. It was pretty much the only tackle the Rams made all night, but it was a doozy.
What you may not have seen, however, is the angle from the Rams sideline, which shows a member of the 49ers staff in hot pursuit before pulling up with what looked like a nasty non-contact leg injury. Keep your eye on the guy dressed in all black at the top of the screen.
Yeesh. We’re not orthopedic surgeons, but we’re pretty sure your leg isn’t supposed to bend that way. After the footage surfaced, so did speculation about the injury, with many wondering if it was an ACL or an MCL, or perhaps even the dreaded ACL/PCL/LCL. As it turned out, however, it wasn’t a knee at all. After the game, tight end George Kittle told reporters that 49ers’ director of team security Mike Anderson “popped his hammy” chasing the jackass.
T&Ps for Mike, “a king of kings” in Kittle's words. Pulling a hammy is bad enough, but popping one? You really don’t want to do that. We don’t know what grade tear Anderson sustained in the slip, but it doesn’t look good based on the video. Here’s hoping he makes a full, speedy recovery and that the next time something like this happens, he lets the linebackers do what the linebackers do best.