The "This Is Even Worse Than We Thought" Stage

^{- Posted by Derek -}

A reader (from France!) passed along this link this morning:

A source close to the situation has informed us that Philadelphia Eagles starting linebacker Stewart Bradley will not only miss this season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, but most likely next season as well.

The source stated that the injury appears to be as bad as a torn ACL can get, indicating to us it was a ‘complete tear.’

1)  From France.

2)  This is the kind of thing that happens when you refuse to discuss injuries in an upfront, "here are the facts" manner.

3)  Certainly I don't want to dismiss the potential seriousness of this injury (or this report), but this does feel like it's part of the usual pattern.  Any time one of these Internet firestorms starts -- and this is admittedly an imperfect example of the genre -- there always seems to be a bidding war of sorts with the leaks that come out.  Things just get more and more sensational as rumors and "sources" float about, to the extent that nine out of ten times, the reality is much less sensational than what you hear beforehand.

With that said, this sucks.