I don’t think the field is the deal. I think it’s shoes. As I detailed in the spring, I spoke to trainer Matt Summers on this issue. I believe it might have been on pro day. We talked about 30 minutes covering a lot of the situations. Almost all of them were different. Believe me, he’s studied the issue. The most common factor for most of them was a type of shoe Nike sent. It had a small sole plate that could have left the fifth metatarsel exposed to a blow. They had three types of shoes, but almost all of the players gravitated to that shoe because of its comfort and weight. It was the lightest shoe Nike had ever delivered.
Matt said fifth metatarsel breaks were up all across football. Again, the shoe seems to be what most are pointing at. If you look, there are a bunch of teams wearing the same shoes. Obviously, the fields are all different.
The fifth metatarsel has been breaking for years. It’s the most fragile bone in the body. It breaks a lot. Both my wife and daughter broke it in the last year. Both in far different ways. My daughter was doing box jumps. Why a 36-year-old third grade teacher is doing box jumps I can’t tell you. I guess she wants to make sure she can catch them if the kid bolts. Two doctors asked her to give up that exercise. She landed on the side of her foot to break it. My wife stumbled over a curb. I wanted to know if she was looking at her cell phone on Facebook. She glared at me. OK, we don’t ask those kind of questions anymore.
One doctor told me they have had an increase in fifth metatarsel breaks in the last couple of years. Why? Are we getting worse in our intake of what it takes to make healthy bones? Why is the general population breaking the fifth metatarsel? That’s worth considering. My daughter said the X-ray tech told her he’d seen an inordinate number of fifth metatarsel breaks in the last couple of years. Are the shoe manufacturers doing something to put that bone in more stress? Are they making shoes too light? Less support? Probably. But there may be tons of variables here worth studying.
Summers said every injury was different, but they don’t wear those shoes anymore. the sole plates are wider and more sturdy now. But still, when a 250-pounder cuts and the grass gives way under his foot and it rolls in a strange way, things break.
There is not much taping can do to support the fifth metatarsel. Studies have revealed that a tape job is strong for about 17 seconds, then the tape isn’t going to provide really much support. Trainers still use about $30,000 in tape every year. I asked an surgeon about the tape story and he confirmed it.
The shoe is always the first thing trainers and doctors want to know about. The shoe in question caused problems all across college football. Matt and other trainers have worked together to do studies and compare notes. And, they work with NFL teams. The same things happened with that shoe all across football. It was thrown out after one season. It’s probably what created the injuries at Arkansas that are 10-18 months ago.
The most recent injuries don’t have anything to do with that shoe. And, there is a belief that the current shoes are providing better support (if not great support) for the fifth metatarsel.
I don’t think there is any real problem with the practice fields above the parking garage. There is one that’s field turf and one that is natural grass. They also use the indoor field inside Walker Pavilion. They also use the game field inside the stadium. As has been pointed out, broken feet (that fifth metatarsel) has been broken on all of those fields and in Little Rock and on LSU’s field.
When Nike sends a new shoe (or any other shoe company), it’s new and the data isn’t extensive. You assume that it’s going to be a good thing, not a bad thing. I will say that trainers, doctors and coaches do chart everything. They don’t take anything for granted.