lookin cool my man

ulnar nerve; Vote_Crisler_1937 wanted me to make him look cool

An MGoUser with a college sports history who had a similar injury to the one Denard had emailed to give some perspective on what he's dealing with at the moment. It's below.

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Brian,

I am wondering about how Denard's nerve injury has affected his passing the last couple years.

Some background with my experience with the injury:

After 4 seasons of B1G baseball I had an ulnar nerve translation surgery.  Until I had that surgery I had very extreme and unpredictable pain in my throwing elbow.  There were days I could go 5 innings against Iowa, and days where after 9 pitches against MSU I hit two guys in the back because I suddenly had no ability to control the ball, eventually being unable to grip it, feeling constant shocks in my fingers and my forearm muscles compressing my bones like a trash compactor.

Some days I could not sit without biting my lip in a car or movie theatre because gently setting my elbow on the armrests was too intense so I imagine slamming it on the turf would have ruined my day as well.  After the surgery, (16 week recovery so not an option for Denard) all of that was gone and my arm felt virgin again.  literally, the first time I threw off a mound my accuracy was the greatest it had ever been and I hadn't thrown a pitch in 16 weeks!  This injury is a chronic overuse injury that started early in my freshman year and became unbearable my senior year.

So my thought is that perhaps this injury is not at all new, and during the times it is really hurting Denard, again, times that are not so predictable, I would bet that it greatly hampers his ability to throw a football with accuracy. To the extent that the coaches are aware of it this can certainly change play-calling.  Perhaps some of his arm-punts or Tacopants slings are a result of him feeling that familiar SHOCK as he releases the football.  Though I guess I have never seen him rub his arm so then again maybe not.

Your thoughts?
Vote_Crisler_1937

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I'm pretty sure this is a newly developed thing with Denard since if he'd had something similar last year, Michigan would have put him under the knife in the offseason.

I don't think it's affected his play much. When Denard has armpunted this year it hasn't been much of a surprise. When he's stepped into his throws they've been accurate. When he's gone all woogly not so much.