The Green Bay Packers have likely lost left tackle Bryan Bulaga for the season with a torn knee ligament. Wide receiver Jordy Nelson is done for the rest of training camp and may miss the start of the regular season. Fellow wideout Randall Cobb got hurt on Tuesday. Injuries are a part of the NFL preseason - here are the top 5 in history (in no particular order).
- After being selected No. 1 overall in the 2001 NFL draft, Michael Vick was a Pro Bowler in 2002 when he led the Atlanta Falcons to the divisional round of the playoff. But, he broke his right leg in a 2003 preseason tilt against Baltimore and missed 10 games. The Falcons finished 5-11.
- Bubba Smith, the No. 1 pick of the 1967 NFL Draft, was coming off back-to-back Pro Bowl seasons for the Baltimore Colts when he blew out his knee in the 1972 preseason when he got caught up in the yardage chains when he ran out of bounds. He missed the entire season and would only play four more years.
- Fifth-year wide receiver Darryl Stingley was paralyzed on a hit by Oakland Raiders defensive back Jack Tatum in the 1978 preseason.
- The Cincinnati Bengals took running back Ki-Jana Carter No. 1 overall in the 1995 draft and signed him to a then-record $7.25 million signing bonus. He blew out his knee on his third carry of that preseason and missed the entire season. Carter was never the same, rushing for just 1,144 yards in a seven-year career.
- In 1999, St. Louis Rams starting quarterback Trent Green blew out his knee in the preseason, which brought in a former grocery store stock man named Kurt Warner. Warner, of course, went on to win the NFL Most Valuable Player award that year in leading the "Greatest Show on Turf" to an improbable Super Bowl championship.
Jim Owczarski is an award-winning sports journalist and comes to Milwaukee by way of the Chicago Sun-Times Media Network.
A three-year Wisconsin resident who has considered Milwaukee a second home for the better part of seven years, he brings to the market experience covering nearly all major and college sports.
To this point in his career, he has been awarded six national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for investigative reporting, feature writing, breaking news and projects. He is also a four-time nominee for the prestigious Peter J. Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism, presented by the Chicago Headline Club, and is a two-time winner for Best Sports Story. He has also won numerous other Illinois Press Association, Illinois Associated Press and Northern Illinois Newspaper Association awards.
Jim's career started in earnest as a North Central College (Naperville, Ill.) senior in 2002 when he received a Richter Fellowship to cover the Chicago White Sox in spring training. He was hired by the Naperville Sun in 2003 and moved on to the Aurora Beacon News in 2007 before joining OnMilwaukee.com.
In that time, he has covered the events, news and personalities that make up the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, NCAA football, baseball and men's and women's basketball as well as boxing, mixed martial arts and various U.S. Olympic teams.
Golf aficionados who venture into Illinois have also read Jim in GOLF Chicago Magazine as well as the Chicago District Golfer and Illinois Golfer magazines.
