Ricky Ray injury update

[Wobbler]

He spent the night in hospital but "has feeling in all extremities", which is obviously good. They are describing it as a neck injury, however, so it is likely that the whole thing wasn't just precautionary.

[jerrym]

It's my experience that virtually all teams tend to minimize the extent of injuries at least in the early stages so as to not alarm fans right away. However, it is good to hear it's not the worse case scenario.

[ArgoZ]

The mildest neck injury puts someone out 2-3 weeks, never mind football. I would not be surprised to see Ray out for a few months, judging from what we saw. Heartbreaking to see it happen to Ray, likely on his last season. The team has come up so flat, in a Grey Cup coma, and Ray’s injury seems to be the punishment. Hopefully this wakes everyone up.

[paulwoods13]

The fact he is still in hospital a day later indicates how seriously it is being taken. Assuming (hoping) he is able to make a full recovery, he should then make the best decision for himself and his family. If that means retiring now, so be it. He owes us, and the sport, nothing and deserves to go out on his own terms.

[Scooter McCray]

So good to hear he has movement and feeling. This early in the injury that is very positive. He really does not need to prove anything else on the football field.

If this does not wake the team up nothing will.

[Argo]

So good to hear he has movement and feeling. This early in the injury that is very positive. He really does not need to prove anything else on the football field.

If this does not wake the team up nothing will.

It'd be great if over the next couple of weeks at least one improvement to the offensive line occurs, however... not holding breath.

OTOH, something can be done immediately about leaving your starting (and very veteran) QB exposed throughout a rout - all the worse behind a crappy O line.

[jerrym]

Jim Popp on Ray's situation:

“I wasn’t thinking about the game at all at that point, just the person, just the person,” said Popp, the Argos general manager. “I thought about his health and well- being and the quality of life and I thought about his family. You’re married. You have kids, they’re in the stands watching this. What’s going through the family’s mind? I was thinking about his wife and his two kids and I contacted them as soon as I could with as much information as I had.” ...

But it may have been career-ending.
That we can’t know about, yet. Not until we understand his condition better. Not until he spends time with his wife and his daughters and talks about the future. Popp grabbed the hand of his most storied player, just as receiver S.J. Green did, and Ray squeezed back, his eyes appearing moist. He squeezed not tightly, but enough of a squeeze that for the moment that it felt encouraging. As encouraging as it can with an athlete on a stretcher, surrounded by doctors holding their breath, a hard plastic collar around his neck, the family in the stadium in its own kind of shock.
“Can you imagine what it’s been like for him?” said Popp. “It’s pretty scary to go through something like that. It’s scary when you’re on the field like that. He probably hasn’t slept all night. He’s probably been up all night, away from his wife and kids, very anxious about his situation. Talking to him last night and today all I can say is, he was Ricky Ray. He was calm, poised, the way you see him all the time. He gave you that feeling, he’s Ricky. You can only hope and pray that everything turns out 100% well for his health.”
Popp wasn’t talking about football. He was talking about the rest of his life. ...

“No matter how the game was going, it changed for both teams at that moment,” said Popp. “There was a lot of concern from both teams. It was amazing after the game how many of the Calgary players came up to us. Nobody wants to see anything like this.”
There was, throughout the stadium, a sense of nervousness, a sense of dread.
“A lot of people werescared,” said Popp. “You never want to see this.”

http://vancouversun.com/sports/footb...4-b199e5932623

[Argo]

https://www.thestar.com/sports/footb...yers-face.html

[Rich]

Like all of you i am hoping and praying that Ricky has a complete recovery with no long term effects from the injury.

But I can't help thinking -- and surely Ricky is thinking the same thing -- that the football gods have weighed in on his decision to return to play this season. It's easy to say it now: he should have packed it in after the Grey Cup. There were plenty of compelling reasons to retire, not the least of which was the risk, even likelihood, of a serious injury, the odds of which increased after he managed to go almost injury-free in 2017. His history of injuries strongly suggested that he was not likely to have a second-straight season without a major injury at age 38.

[jerrym]

More from Popp on how Ray is doing:

Toronto Argonauts general manager Jim Popp said Monday it will be a few more days before club officials know the full extent of the injury to quarterback Ricky Ray.
“I can’t even speculate on that right now,” Popp said. “I surely hope and pray it’s not significant for his quality of life and his family’s and there’s a 100 per cent recovery.
“The prelim report is good (but) that doesn’t mean he won’t be out a bit. They run very thorough tests, they’re going over stuff, they want multiple people to look at it so there’s a clear indication of what the next step is. It may take a few days for us to get all those answers.”

http://3downnation.com/2018/06/25/ar...y-injury-popp/

[Neely2005]

Ray released from the hospital:

https://www.tsn.ca/ray-released-from...time-1.1123041

[Stevoman]

Ray released from the hospital:

https://www.tsn.ca/ray-released-from...time-1.1123041

He is expected to miss significant time. Seems to me that the James Franklin era has begun.

[dmont]

https://twitter.com/FarhanLaljiTSN/s...0%7Ctwterm%5E3

[macspectrum]

ray should realize he has gotten a 2nd chance and should retire gracefully having won a cup last year

[Skilz]

ray should realize he has gotten a 2nd chance and should retire gracefully having won a cup last year

Safe to say Ricky Ray goes on the 6 Game Injury List as I speculate this would equate to "significant time"

New Depth Chart: Franklin, MBT, Prukop

[argolio]

If Ricky doesn't retire soon, I suspect he'll wait to see where he is in 2-3 months before deciding his future.

[argotom]

ray should realize he has gotten a 2nd chance and should retire gracefully having won a cup last year

Yes.
It's always better when one retires at the top, just like Burris did.
On his own time and not like potentially now due to a grave injury.

[jerrym]

Yes.
It's always better when one retires at the top, just like Burris did.
On his own time and not like potentially now due to a grave injury.

I'm torn but I sadly have to agree. The risk of a lifelong crippling injury is not worth it.

[Neely2005]

I'll leave it to Ray to decide when he should retire. If he can get healthy and come back that would be great!

[Argo]

I'll leave it to Ray to decide when he should retire. If he can get healthy and come back that would be great!

Just my opinion, of course, but I think this serious - and nearly catastrophic - injury event implies Ray's retirement. After all, he just spent several months strongly considering retirement.

He's been a great QB and a man of excellent character.