On January 1, 2016 it was Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s Jaylon Smith. On December 30, 2016, it was Michigan Wolverines’ Jake Butt. The former, Ohio State Buckeyes cornerback Denzel Ward saw in person, the latter took place in the Orange Bowl, a game that many around the country saw on television. Why are those two injuries significant, you ask? The moment Smith tore his ACL and LCL in his left knee while subsequently experiencing nerve damage in that same leg in the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State, it changed the outlook on non-College Football Playoff bowl games forever. Expected to be a top-5 pick, Smith ended up falling to the 34th-overall selection simply due to many teams not exactly knowing how he would recover from his devastating knee injury. That fall in the draft cost Smith millions of dollars. Imagine if he would have just sat out the game, which…
Continue Reading: Ohio State’s Denzel Ward sat out the Cotton Bowl, and that’s OK
