Matt Forte Injury: Direct Shot On Knee Knocks Him Out Of The Game

Hit on Matt Forte. Photo from Chicago Tribune.

Breaking: The Bears’ playoff hopes.

Less than ten minutes into a contest between the Chicago Bears (starting Caleb Hanie) and Kansas City Chiefs (starting Tyler Palko), the only legitimate blue-chip player on the field got knocked out of the game. In related news, Commissioner Roger Goodell takes his talking points for an 18-game season and burns them all.

The hit on Matt Forte didn’t look catastrophic, like a Theisman injury, but he did take a direct shot just above the knee with all his weight planted on his right leg. The good news, for those desperate for any good news, was that he didn’t need a cart to get off the field. The bad news, the Bears ruled him out for the rest of the game almost immediately.

Early takes are focusing on the long-term implications of this injury for Forte and his contract-year status, but there is little doubt that he has earned himself a big payday. It’s the short term implications that should have Bears fans, and the Bears themselves, most worried.

Without Forte in the huddle, the Bears’ offense has been reduced to the equivalent of a Three Stooges comedy routine, except with eleven stooges, and it isn’t funny. Chicago has two drives of more than six plays on the day, ending in a field goal made and a field goal missed. And this is against the 4-7 Chiefs.

Forte’s injury underscores a subcurrent of NFL players who grumble when they hear the league talking about safety. Count the Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger among those who would rather take a shot to the head than one below the waist.

“Just to be a little woozy, I think guys would take that over never walking again,” Roethlisberger said in an NFL.com article.

Matt Forte might agree.

Update: Bears beat reporter S.K. Jensen reports that Forte is believed to have an MCL sprain

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