Kansas City Chiefs safety Eric Berry is not practicing Wednesday, the second day of work as the team prepares to take on the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday afternoon in the AFC’s divisional round.
Berry missed practice on Friday, December 28, before he was eventually held out of the Chiefs’ final game of the season against the Oakland Raiders. Berry practiced limitedly to start this week on Tuesday, which many felt was a good sign, but he could not participate on Wednesday as he deals with his lingering heel injury.
“It’s difficult from the standpoint of he’s a real critical part of our team,” defensive coordinator Bob Sutton said when asked about the uncertainty surrounding the three-time All-Pro. “He’s an outstanding player. He’s one of our true leaders, the guys rally around him, so I think that part is always hard. You get caught up in different things in the season. But also, if you stick back for a second, you say, ‘Man, this is really hard on this guy, too, as a player. This is something he loves to do. He’s been really good at it, and as difficult as it is on us as a defensive unit or us as a team, I think for him, it’s really challenging.’
“So it’s just what it is. There’s not a lot you can do about it, and every week we’ve got our fingers crossed and hope that he can make it back and go. It’s truly—I know you guys get tired of hearing this—it really is a day to day to day thing here right now, the way it’s playing out. You just got to stay in there and go and figure out how to get other guys ready in case he can’t go.”
Berry was originally held out of the Chiefs’ first 13 games with what the team described as a sore heel, though reports, which have never been confirmed (nor denied) said Berry has what is called a “Haglund’s deformity.”
Berry eventually returned to the lineup to play 30 snaps Week 15 against the Los Angeles Chargers and played 69 snaps Week 16 against the Seattle Seahawks before what has appeared to be some sort of setback.
Sutton was asked Wednesday about who would replace Berry and linebacker Dorian O’Daniel, who hasn’t practiced at all this week, if they couldn’t play against the Colts.
Without Berry in a must-win game against the Raiders when it came to playoff home-field advantage, the safety snap count breakdown was as follows: Daniel Sorensen (63), Eric Murray (33), Jordan Lucas (32) and Ron Parker (6).
In the above breakdown, it is important to note that Sorensen and Lucas earned the start. Lucas suffered a stinger, and the Chiefs eventually removed starters in a 35-3 blowout.
It remains to be seen who the Chiefs start against the Colts if Berry cannot play once again.
A note on Dorian O’Daniel
#Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub on LB Dorian O’Daniel, who has missed two practices this week: “He’s a four-phase starter for us. He’s an important guy, so we’re keeping an eye on that one, pretty close.”
“I wouldn’t tell you,” he initially said with a smile. “We have to work guys in, obviously, and just see where guys are. The one good thing is you’re at the point of the season where if you do have to miss some reps and you get better toward to the end of the week, this is probably the time to do it. We just have to kind of roll guys through, which we try to do, anyway, but when you have a guy in question, you have to say, ‘OK,’ because that usually affects somebody else.
“Sometimes that affects special teams ... It’s going to affect Dave (Toub) and what he’s putting together, so you got to kind of stay on top of that as a total staff, too. But we just got to slide and we’ve got some different options, but we kind of have to wait and see where it’s at.” [Reply]
Originally Posted by InChiefsHell:
I think it's more like people get injured and are out for a season all the time...but Berry has been out for 2 seasons and according to the team, he's "day to day" all this year. I'm not mad at Berry so much as I am the Chiefs. 2 seasons. Granted, hindsight is 20-20 and I'm sure he and the team thought this would not go on as long as it has. But all they've said is it's a "sore heel" and it's "day to day" and then Berry says his "spirit" wasn't feeling it...
...it's because the defense sucks and we need him and he's not there, for whatever reason. We've done fine on Offense without LDT. It's really not the same as much as you'd like to believe it is. If he's got a chronic condition, say it then. It's frustrating, but I don't hate Berry for it.
I'm frustrated about it as well. But what I find disturbing is the utter disdain some folks seem to have for Berry when his injuries are out of his control. The guy tore his Achilles, comes back to training camp and looks in good shape. Then out of nowhere he stops camp and weeks later we here about the heel issues. It's widely acknowledged that he'll need surgery to clear it up and it would take around six months to recover. If he would have had surgery in the off-season then his season would have most likely been over. But no, he chose to fight on and eventually got to a space where he came back and has played in a few games. This whole thing is about him coping with the pain until the end of the season and then he can get surgery, but folks are so childish and ignorant that they are abusing the man and being extremely heartless. They also contradict themselves because they moan about the "contract", then turn around and call for him to be "cut", thus creating a whole load of dead money. It just doesn't make sense at all.
IF Berry cannot play again this season then I hope he gets his surgery and over the summer Veach can speak with him and see if they can make a few tweaks to that contract. But to suggest we should "give up on him" is stupid imo. Because when he is healthy he would no doubt improve this defense next season. [Reply]
Originally Posted by UChieffyBugger:
I'm frustrated about it as well. But what I find disturbing is the utter disdain some folks seem to have for Berry when his injuries are out of his control. The guy tore his Achilles, comes back to training camp and looks in good shape. Then out of nowhere he stops camp and weeks later we here about the heel issues. It's widely acknowledged that he'll need surgery to clear it up and it would take around six months to recover. If he would have had surgery in the off-season then his season would have most likely been over. But no, he chose to fight on and eventually got to a space where he came back and has played in a few games. This whole thing is about him coping with the pain until the end of the season and then he can get surgery, but folks are so childish and ignorant that they are abusing the man and being extremely heartless. They also contradict themselves because they moan about the "contract", then turn around and call for him to be "cut", thus creating a whole load of dead money. It just doesn't make sense at all.
IF Berry cannot play again this season then I hope he gets his surgery and over the summer Veach can speak with him and see if they can make a few tweaks to that contract. But to suggest we should "give up on him" is stupid imo. Because when he is healthy he would no doubt improve this defense next season.
Originally Posted by -King-:
He lost your respect by being injured? I agree that this should and I think will be his last year here unless he agrees to the biggest pay cut ever but unless you really think he's faking an injury or playing up this current injury, I don't see what he has done to lose respect.
I told you. That contract. Five years? All that guaranteed money?
Blah blah blah always side with the players over the owners blah blah.
Bullshit. Not this time. This franchise was DAMN GOOD to Eric Berry and he fucked us. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Titty Meat:
Hes not the one who paid the contract the fuck was he supposed to do? You give up your money when you miss work?
His demands for a longterm contract with fuckloads of guaranteed money post-cancer recovery was fucking unreasonable.
I know Clark is the one who got swindled, but now that the fear that Dorsey had about Berry is coming to pass, it still doesn't mean Berry is innocent.
Again, I bring this up. Berry wasn't an undrafted whore who had to toil from practice squad to practice squad for the first years of his NFL career. Why the fuck was it so important for him to hold out until he got a longterm deal that would hamstring the franchise if they tried to get out of it too early? [Reply]
A lot of the frustration here (IMO) is the result of the cryptic statements from the Chiefs and Berry.
If he can’t play, he can’t play. I don’t see the rationale in all this “day to day” talk. It’s rrally just unnecessarily frustrating. I do wonder if the other players are frustrated by it as well.
If you’re Jordan Lucas, how do you feel about Eric Berry apparently picking and choosing when he takes your playing time.
The “spirit” statement from Berry was a really bad look too. That sounded like a guy who doesn’t love the game anymore. It sounded like a guy who had a close call with death and now he’s evaluating if the game is worth anymore (which is easy to do when you’re that wealthy).
I really wish that some combination of Berry and the Chiefs were more honest and direct with this. If he can’t play and needs surgery, get the surgery so he can recover more quickly. If it’s a ploy to save him for the playoffs, I don’t really see the harm in alluding to that.
It just really seems like the Chiefs and Berry have handled the public side of this very poorly. If that’s any indication of the private side, then the entire situation has been a debacle. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Marcellus:
Its completely speculation that his sore heal caused the achilles tear in the other foot. But let's assume for a minute you are correct, you really think they just ignored it? Seriously? They are paying the guy $13MM a year and they decided to just ignore it? Thats laughable.
You act like your dumb ass that works at Dunkin Donuts or whatever has some insight that actual medical professionals don't have.
The only benefit you have over the team and the medical staff is hindsight.
I have zero medical training, whatsoever. None.
But you know what I do have? A history of spending at ton of time each day reading every word of Chiefs news I could get my eyes on. I’ve also gone to training camp each year since 2003. A lot of the players recognize me and talk with me when I go because I’m there every year.
Because of that, I have followed the intracasies of Eric’s career as closely as any other fan out there could. I know it’s kinda unhealthy. But here we are.
Eric Berry started having problems with the heel, that’s ending his career, about 5 years ago. Maybe 6. It was bad enough then, that he missed numerous practices BACK THEN because of it. Specifically that heel. That persisted every single year until now.
When a person has a hurt part of their body, the natural instinct is to overcompensate by over using the opposite extremity. That quite often leads to major injuries...while still needing the original problem fixed.
Now, do I know that the -presumed- Haglands deformity that has -presumably- been there for years caused the opposite Achilles to tear/rupture? No. I don’t. But I do know that the problem with his heel has been there for years and that after cancer, Eric tore his opposite Achilles and the original problem in the other heel persists even after the torn Achilles has been repaired and is healed.
It’s sad as fuck that Eric’s body is -thus far- preventing him from being able to contribute in such a huge year, but it is what it is.
I commented on this already, but I heard an interview where a Hodgkin Lymphoma survivor said his body doesn’t heal as quickly as it did before his fight of cancer and people don’t understand how much it takes from you. He talked about how hard it would be for a fully healthy man to rehab from2 Achilles injuries at the same time (what Eric would have gone ghrough to correct the deformity) and how he was probably told that if they tried to repair both at the same time that he probably ran a rush of not healing correctly and never playing again. Maybe even not being able to walk right. It was on the radio, so who knows the validity...but it made sense.
I hope Eric’s body will let him make one last heroic comeback and help us beat the Colts. Then the Patriots. Then help us win a super bowl.
The guy deserves it just as much as the fans deserve him to help achieve that goal. [Reply]
Originally Posted by smithandrew051:
A lot of the frustration here (IMO) is the result of the cryptic statements from the Chiefs and Berry.
If he can’t play, he can’t play. I don’t see the rationale in all this “day to day” talk. It’s rrally just unnecessarily frustrating. I do wonder if the other players are frustrated by it as well.
If you’re Jordan Lucas, how do you feel about Eric Berry apparently picking and choosing when he takes your playing time.
The “spirit” statement from Berry was a really bad look too. That sounded like a guy who doesn’t love the game anymore. It sounded like a guy who had a close call with death and now he’s evaluating if the game is worth anymore (which is easy to do when you’re that wealthy).
I really wish that some combination of Berry and the Chiefs were more honest and direct with this. If he can’t play and needs surgery, get the surgery so he can recover more quickly. If it’s a ploy to save him for the playoffs, I don’t really see the harm in alluding to that.
It just really seems like the Chiefs and Berry have handled the public side of this very poorly. If that’s any indication of the private side, then the entire situation has been a debacle.
If he needs the surgery and intends to have it and it knocks you out for 6 months, what’s the harm in trying to squeeze out a playoff game or 2 this season?
If he has the surgery in late February or early March, that puts his recovery at the timeframe to be ready for preseason next year.
My issue is why they didn’t fix this YEARS ago. [Reply]
Im going to wait until he is officially ruled out before I get too pissed off. I mean its annoying that hes not playing and everything, but after watching him play its pretty clear that he wont make a difference. What we need to do is put him on the IR and put someone on the roster who can play (if that's possible right now). Why not just make him active and run his ass out there. Might as well give it a go. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BossChief:
If he needs the surgery and intends to have it and it knocks you out for 6 months, what’s the harm in trying to squeeze out a playoff game or 2 this season?
If he has the surgery in late February or early March, that puts his recovery at the timeframe to be ready for preseason next year.
My issue is why they didn’t fix this YEARS ago.
I probably should’ve been more clear.
If he needed surgery (let’s say in the offseason or early season), why the hell wouldn’t he just take care of it then?
Having him healthy for the middle to late regular season would’ve been fine. Start the year on IR and come back when healthy. [Reply]
Originally Posted by TEX:
This whole Eric Berry saga should serve as a life -long reminder to Clark, to NEVER AGAIN get involved with any contract negotiations to the same extent he did with Berry. In fact as a reminder, someone needs to tatoo the word HAGLUNDS on his forhead.
