Did a Titans Player Intentionally Injure Adam Thielen?
By Dan Zinski
Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen had to leave Thursday’s preseason game early after suffering an injury to his hip. Some fans have reviewed the tape of the play on which Thielen was hurt and are crying foul.
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The video evidence is…interesting.
A Redditor has posted a GIF of the play on which Thielen was injured. Thielen is tackled by two men and one of them, #57 Patrick Bailey, appears to give Thielen’s leg a little extra yank after Thielen is already down.
It certainly does look like Bailey gave Thielen’s leg a little twist. I’ll be curious to see if Thielen himself says anything about what happened on the play.
Just based on that one clip, it does look a little bit dirty. I would hesitate to go as far as accusing Bailey of intentionally hurting Thielen, but it’s definitely fishy.
If Bailey did hurt Thielen on purpose, I’d really like to get inside his mind and learn his rationale for doing that. Does he figure that kind of thing makes him a tough guy? Twisting a guy’s leg while he’s already on the ground in a vulnerable position?
It would really suck if Thielen was knocked out for an extended period, all because some Titans player decided to be a massive jerk. There’s no place for that kind of stuff in football.
But again, we don’t know for sure if it was intentional.