When it's all said and done, Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford may have more visits to Dr. James Andrews this year than complete games played. For the third time in the fetal-stage of his career, Stafford will pay a visit to the arm specialist on Monday to have him check out what has been reported 'irresponsibly' as a Grade 3 separation of Stafford's throwing shoulder.
"This was a visit we had scheduled all along," coach Jim Schwartz said. "Dr. Andrews has been in communication with our (medical staff). He's seen the MRI and the x-rays, but he wanted to physically evaluate him after all the swelling and soreness went down."
Schwartz followed up the glum news with a comment that aught to make Lions fans laugh and cry at the same time.
"[Stafford's] going to buy an apartment down there," Schwartz joked. Too soon, Jimmy, especially when us fans don't even know for sure what's wrong with Stafford because you're so dead set on keeping it in-house.
And guess what? We may not learn any more from Stafford's visit to Dr. Andrews because Schwartz went on to say that the visit will not necessarily lead to any immediate decision about Stafford's status for the rest of the season.
At this point, I'm banking on his season being over and just praying he doesn't need any surgery. If he does need surgery, I hope it's as minor of surgery as possible given the fact it is on his golden throwing shoulder. Don't put too much weight into my gut feeling, though, because I'm being highly irresponsible right now. I guess we can just all sit on the edges of our seats and wait for the Lions to not tell us what's going on.