What went wrong with Benjamin St-Juste?
This came up in the Gabe Newburg thread . . .
Benjamin St-Juste was given a medical a few years back. He's now reportedly about to win a job as the starting slot CB for the Washington Commanders.
So obviously something went wrong. If he was processed, seems like there was a big error in player evaluation. If it was a real medical, seems like some doctor was grossly over-conservative given that he's been cleared, variously, by the doctors at U Minnesota, at the NFL Combine and with the Commanders (and IIRC, he's been reasonably injury-free since he left Michigan).
Either way, it seems like someone screwed the pooch. Did the public ever learn about who fouled up, and whether there was anything done to make sure it wouldn't happen again?
I believe it was anti-francophile behavior due to his frenchy last name.
he didn't like steak and whole milk. docs figured it was a medical condition.
As stated in the thread, he wasn’t processed as we needed decent CBs on the team. No indication that anyone did anything wrong. Doctors have different opinions on the same condition. It’s fine.
This. It's human to look at a situation and think about what could have been, but at some point people are better off just letting things go. BSJ was diagnosed one way by the medical professionals at the University. He was given the option to medical and receive a free education from the school. He chose to get a second diagnosis, and went on to have a successful outcome somewhere else as a result.
Something "wrong" didn't have to happen for these events to occur. There are no pooches to be screwn here.
This isn't the first time someone has received a favorable secondary diagnosis. This isn't the first time someone went on to do something great after leaving a place where they weren't able to find success.
Great for BSJ. I hope he goes on to have prolonged success in the NFL.
It’s human nature to get a second opinion if you don’t like the first doctor’s assessment. Same for lawyers, plumbers, electricians, etc.
Yes, which is why you’d think Michigan would’ve done the same with a player they wanted to keep. I think the doctors differ explanation is a bit naive.
August 10th, 2022 at 9:59 AM ^
What we are talking about is probabilities. And we were dealing with a a muscle, a highly complex system. It's not possible to know with certainty how it will respond to what it experiences. Also, individuals differ with regard to their healing. Complicating it further, we can't know exactly what it will experience in the future. Well conditioned athletes can suffer a soft tissue injury just making a cut or landing wrong. Everything just sometimes adds up to an intolerable stress on the soft tissue. Who can predict when that will occur? There may have been a very high probability that if he made a cut or landed wrong, there was a very high probability of serious injury. But he was lucky and never made a cut or landed in a way that put too much stress on it.
A point for "screwn." Great word.
August 10th, 2022 at 8:51 AM ^
"Screwn" definitely needs to be a word. I shall immediately incorporate it into my vernacular. Here is a sample sentence I already have in my arsenal: "She wanted to be screwn last night, but I made her wait twenty minutes until the episode concluded and I finished my popcorn."
August 10th, 2022 at 9:24 AM ^
Okay, I'll upvote you for exemplary use of the now-obviously standard word "screwn," but I nearly also downvoted you for your ungentlemanly example of making a lady wait.
I mean clearly the doctor got it wrong assuming it was truly just a medical decision. That’s not to say they did it maliciously by any means, but if you give the opinion that an athlete can no longer compete and then that athlete goes on to become a professional athlete then that medical opinion was clearly wrong.
Sometimes Doctors make the wrong decision and it kills you. Sometimes Doctors make the wrong decision and it doesn't.
And IRL doctors often come to different conclusions.
Medicine is a science, with clear data, but it's also an art, involving interpretation and best guesses on less than perfectly clear information.
August 10th, 2022 at 1:14 AM ^
Medicine is a lot more “practice” than science…
August 10th, 2022 at 6:21 PM ^
More specifically, medical research is science. Medical care is practice.
August 10th, 2022 at 6:58 AM ^
Does anyone know or remember what the medical condition was? concussion, knee, shoulder, etc. It probably was never made public, but just wondering.
August 12th, 2022 at 9:35 AM ^
IIRC he'd had hamstring problems that kept him off the field for all of his sophmore year, yes? Don't know if that was the problem that kept the doctors from clearing him. This happened during a time when there were a number of transfers: Brandon Peters, Aubrey Solomon, Myles Sims, etc. The weird player attrition at the time gives the St. Juste situation more sus-iness.
We have no idea what risks if any BSJ has decided to play with.
It's possible UM doctors tend to be more cautious re serious injuries. Wouldn't surprise me at, in fact, because protecting a patient's safety comes before protecting his career. Just because the kid didn't go on to get a serious injury doesn't mean there's a solid chance he could have.
August 10th, 2022 at 12:03 AM ^
Whoa! That was deep Charlotte!
I feel somehow wiser for having read your words!
I know someone who plays professional soccer despite a hip issue that could permanently cripple them. The fact that they are not crippled yet does not mean playing is the correct option.
Your ignorance is showing.
You can't say the doctor "clearly" got anything wrong unless you know exactly what they diagnosed, said and recommended.
Could've been that BSJ had a high risk of being in danger if he kept playing, not that he could never play again
August 10th, 2022 at 1:44 PM ^
Or….. whatever they were worried about has not yet happened to the young man. And hopefully for everyone including BSJ and those doctors, they continue to look overly cautious to people who have zero clue what the diagnosis was and to everyone else too.
August 9th, 2022 at 11:58 PM ^
It's not "fine" but it's ok now - the program moved forward without St-Juste and is in a stronger place in the secondary than its been since Woodson & Ray, I believe.
But I'm among those who are interested how it could have happened, and concerned that steps have been taken to ensure it never happens again.
It didn't serve the student-athlete, it didn't serve the team. It's important that lessons were learned, and it's not wrong to question it.
August 10th, 2022 at 1:12 AM ^
Doesn't matter how interested you or anyone else is..its his health and its his privacy.
So, maybe he will voluntarily speak about it at some point but UM will never do so publicly. I'm sure they are prohibited from doing so and unless there is something larger and more nefarious going on there is nothing to investigate. OTOH if this were a pattern or way to manage the roster then I'd expect more than one case like this and a lot more attention by the media.
August 10th, 2022 at 6:19 AM ^
"Interested" not in the particulars of St-Juste's medical record, Interested in the particulars of the process. So not really invading his privacy.
I & others are asking for the process to be vetted to ensure no more student athletes are driven away from Michigan for what, with no explanation of the process made public, looks like an overabundance of caution.
St-Juste is not the only one to be offered a medical redshirt (Newburg is apparently the most recent), nor is he the only one to continue his playing career elsewhere after Michigan Drs ruled him medically ineligible. He's just the only one who we've missed as a player so far.
It's also rather curious why many on here are so defensive of the Michigan medical-athletic staff when recent revelations suggest more clarity into how they function is called for, not less 🤷♂️
Will we need more players to excel elsewhere before we get interested?
August 10th, 2022 at 1:58 AM ^
It will happen again. Nothing wrong happened.
He likes to eat a lot of chicken...
Jive turkeys
If he was processed, seems like there was a big error in player evaluation.
99% sure this wasn't the case, coaches seemed to really like him and it was big blow for CB depth at the time.
If it was a real medical, seems like some doctor was grossly over-conservative
Maybe. Sometimes Dr's get this stuff wrong, they're fallible human beings as well, but they're giving their best recommendation based on their knowledge, experience, and what's going on with the patient.
Medical science is not always "black and white", there are tons of shades of grey and more than likely the U of M crowd, as more than 1 Dr. weighed in probably, wanted to be more conservative for the benefit of the student's health long term.
It would be hugely criminal to take the more aggressive stance and what if the player had an incident on the field, then the University would be accused of wanting to win at all costs and rightfully sued!
Wish BSJ the best of luck and let this go!
August 10th, 2022 at 12:09 AM ^
Are you accusing Minnesota of wanting to win at all costs? Is that the only way you can face that Michigan's athletic dept Drs may have made an error?
I'll say again, I'm just concerned that we aren't being so cautious that we are potentially robbing student-athletes of the opportunity to continue playing. What if Minnesota wasn't willing to let him play because Michigan's Drs said no?
That would be an in-Juste-is!
August 10th, 2022 at 12:39 PM ^
Learn to read, that is not what I said.
He was constantly injured (hamstring IIRC) to start his career. It’s likely the medical advice was that with the continued re-injury, he was at risk of doing permanent damage and having long-lasting negative effects. The advice of that doctor in particular may have been to hang it up, the potential risks aren’t worth it.
Now, different doctors can give you different answers or recommendations for the same injury/ailment. This is why “getting a second opinion” is so common in the medical world. It doesn’t mean one doctor is right or the other is wrong. Bodies are weird. Nobody heals the same or at the same rate. Outcomes vary for similar injuries all the time.
I wouldn't say anyone “screwed the pooch.” It has worked out (so far at least) for BSJ that his injury hasn’t negatively impacted him. If Minnesota’s doctor cleared him and his hamstring injury turned into something that had a major negative impact on his life, we’d be having a very different conversation right now. I think both outcomes had a very real chance of occurring, and different doctors had different opinions on the correct course of action. Again, a very common occurrence in the medical world.
Yeah. But if you're a doctor and you advise someone "you can't continue to pursue this profession", and then 6 other doctors disagree and the person pursues the profession successfully without injury, you'd think a little introspection would be in order.
Is that what happened? Or just your fantasy?
This post sounds an awful lot like shit-stirring for its own sake.
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc
E pluribus hic hoc
I'll put this politely: How the fuck do you know exactly what was said to BSJ? Have you seen transcripts?
I don’t think we’re to the point where we should be making arguments based on made up scenarios in your head.
However, I highly doubt "you can't continue to pursue this profession" is something the doctor would have said. It’s much more likely that he would have explained the risks of playing and re-injuring himself and said something along the lines of “it is in my professional opinion that it is inadvisable for you to continue playing with these risks in mind.” Doctors tend to avoid dealing in absolutes.
Now, BSJ could go out tomorrow and tear his hamstring (knock on wood) and never play the game again and deal with significant setbacks in his every day life. You never know. Just because the negative risk hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean it won’t. And it may never happen. But that doesn’t mean that risk wasn’t still there. Doctors can’t tell the future. All they can do is analyze the information they have and make a judgement.
Yeah, just like how if you need to make up super specific scenarios in order to be mad at a doctor that gave an opinion to a football player that you didnt like, a little introspection may be in order
August 9th, 2022 at 10:39 PM ^
You don't know this. It's all theory and anecdotal. You have no facts and clearly are not a Doctor.
Bodies are weird.
You don't say?
That is some freakishly white skin.
The other fellow looks to be in great shape.
According to the exit post (per Steve Lorenz), he asked for the medical waiver.
https://mgoblog.com/content/exit-benjamin-st-juste
People keep doing this shit, using evidence rather than wild speculation. What kind of an MGoBlogger ARE you?!
So... time to start the Steve Lorenz conspiracy theory??
Perfect find, thank you. No "screwn" pooches.