Brian Westbrook One Step Closer to Joining St. Louis Rams
According to Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Daily News, former Philadelphia Eagles running back came just a little bit closer to continuing his career when he reportedly passed his physical with the St. Louis Rams.
If he has truly passed his physical, it’s likely Westbrook signs an incentive-laden deal with the Rams in order to continue his career as Steve Jackson’s backup. However, as Bowen talks about in his article, the Rams play indoor on artificial turf — something that could hurt Westbrook’s chances of becoming a Ram.
Westbrook has always had issues with his knee swelling up every other week, and playing on turf will only exacerbate that problem. The Eagles often kept Westbrook out of any indoor practice in order to save him from the potential issues with his knees.
The artificial turf, even for how far it’s come since the days of it basically just being a rug, is very rough on a player with bad joints and will create a conundrum for St. Louis and Westbrook.
It’s likely that Westbrook would simply try to deal with the issue, however, as St. Louis appears to be his last opportunity to continue an otherwise brilliant career that could be cut short by nagging injuries. And he’s probably only getting this shot because of the Andy Reid disciples now running the show in St. Louis.
Head coach of the Rams, Steve Spagnuolo, was a defensive assistant behind Jim Johnson before taking over as defensive coordinator for the New York Giants, and Pat Shurmur, the Rams’ offensive coordinator, was the quarterbacks coach in Philadelphia before Spags snatched him up.
Westbrook was once a player talked about as a possibly Hall of Fame candidate, but he’s experienced a fall from grace directly related to injuries he’s accrued throughout his career, including knee, ankle, and concussion issues.
Three years ago he would have likely been considered one of the best free agents to ever hit the market, and now the only team willing to even give him a physical is the Rams — the clear-cut worst team in the league in 2009.
It’s a discouraging turn of events for an overall good guy and a former great player.