Question about sports medicine standards (re: Benjamin St. Juste)

No expert, but I’m sure it’s a way to “get rid” of a player that perhaps isn’t a fit for the program anymore.

 I can’t imagine another university willing to take on the risk and liability of a player playing who objectively has a condition that could cause severe harm if his playing career were to continue. 

falcon was not well enough to play at Michigan.  Fleck and Lester gave him a shot to come back in Kalamazoo, he never looked good after rehab and he eventually medically retired.  the kid probably worked his ass off to get back on the field.  I’m glad he got a moment but sadly as happens to many the injuries were too much to overcome.  i hope he’s able to get his degree and move on after football.

Could be a way to make roster room without cutting a player, and allowing them to get their degree.  But on the other hand, players may not want to hear the medical news and insist they can keep playing.  And there's a lot of unscrupulous coaches who would let a player risk further injury if they think they could help their team.

There are 3 players under Harbaugh I recall facing pressure to take a medical and balking at the offer, Ondre Pipkins, Matt Falcoln, and St. Juste.  All 3 had a history of injuries and it would be reasonable for a doctor to recommend they no longer play.  Meanwhile, Fleck has had some bad press about him this summer regarding overworking players and not caring about their well being.

Without knowing the actual medical diagnosis from Michigan it's impossible to say how legit the medicals are but I don't think there's a case to criticize Michigan for overly designating players to take a medical against their wishes either.

Different diagnosis is common but it's hard to tell on a case by case basis if it's that or if a guy was processed.

If they light St. Juste on fire today I will yell at the TV that he is a bum who was processed. I'll go back to generally rooting for the guy on Sunday. 

Doctors can differ in their diagnoses the same way lawyers can view facts and reach different conclusions or brokers can look at stocks and disagree on whether one is a buy or not.  Some doctors, lawyers, brokers etc. are more conservative than others.  It shouldn’t be surprising there might be medical disagreement about the wisdom of someone continuing an athletic career.

Again!!!  This AINT Juste!!!  Benjamin!

As a former athlete, I can tell you flat out that we don't like being told we can't do something.

Medical experts probably weighed in and told St. Juste of the risks he would face playing again.

As an athlete, I am sure he heard that and said: "F that.  I'm gonna prove them wrong."

And he has.

Glad for St. Juste to get healthy enough to play well.  It's a shame it wasn't in AA, because he would look really good with the winged helmet today and there wouldn't have been nearly the gloomy talk with him as #1 CB.

I've been on both sides of this. I've told kids they shouldn't or can't play and years ago I doctor shopped to find someone who said "Ok" after my surgeon said no.

There is room for differences of opinion and I have no illusions either about teams using these decisions to trim rosters.

Bottom line: who knows.

This is big time college football. Michigan needed scholarships, St. Juste was injured. So they medically redshirted him to create room. St. Juste felt he still could play and Fleck gave him a chance. The season before St Juste was behind Hill, Watson, Ambry, and Long on the depth chart. Plus, they had Gray and Green coming up behind him. If they would’ve known what they knew now, probably would’ve kept him on the team.

This is a guess from the outside looking in.  That being said I do have a master's degree in exercise science with a concentration on performance enhancement and injury prevention.  It is beyond my scope of practice to diagnose injuries, but well within it at avoiding them and recover from them through exercise.  I have also worked as a college S&C coach at three different universities including one division one football program, but never a P5 football program. 

I say to highlight that I've worked with athletes as a college S&C recovering from and dealing with injuries so I see how these things happen.  And, my best guess is the UM sports med staff did this more to serve their own needs than the student's.  I'd guess this was probably a way to offer a firm handshake.  St. Juste said it was not his choice and he never planned on being done playing.  So, while I'm sure the UM staff had enough evidence to make the call valid, I'd also guess they had enough evidence to allow him to keep playing at UM if the UM coaches wanted him to.  If this was hypothetically Charles Woodson recovering from the same injury history, he'd still be at UM playing.

Often times in medicine, things are not always black and white. Physicians can look at the same condition but differ on the potential for adverse outcome with continued sport participation.

In situations such as this, there are judgments to be made in conjunction with individual and institutional risk assessment. An athlete and his/her family may be willing to assume a certain degree of risk in order to pursue an athletic career but one institution may not be willing to assume the risk while another might.

We'll never know. HIPAA.