Ruggs Hurt, Jackson’s No Fans Idea and Gronk Goes Down

BY ADAM GREENE

Usually when you come across news of an NFL player getting hurt in the offseason, it’s almost always something dumb. From crashing a motorcycle, getting hurt in a pick up basketball game or freezing his feet off by not wearing socks in a cryochamber, the player in question is usually totally at fault.

This time, it’s none of that.

Instead, Las Vegas Raiders rookie wide receiver Henry Ruggs hurt his leg being a good dude and helping a friend move. Normally, such an activity would get you pizza and beer as repayment, but Ruggs left with something else, a puncture wound in his leg.

“He (Ruggs) was trying to move a trailer or something — move furniture or something — and the trailer just kind of pinned him against a car or a wall or something,” Ruggs’ father, Henry Ruggs Jr. told AL.com Monday. “He’s pretty much OK, I’m about to go out there and see him in a little bit. It was just like a little open wound on his leg, a little incision. Like something had stuck him right there on his thigh a little bit.”

It was an accident that could happen to anyone and doesn’t sound serious, thank God. Ruggs is expected to be a real threat in Las Vegas passing attack this season, with his over-under receiving yards set at 800.

There’s not a lot of competition keeping Ruggs off the field for the Raiders. Tyrell Williams is slated to start on the opposite side after a 64-catch, 651-yard, six TD season in 2019. Hunter Renfrow was drafted to play in the slot last season and will stay there. Free agent addition Nelson Agholor could be a weapon, but won’t keep Ruggs off the field.

Ruggs totals should still be safe, but maybe he should come up with a good excuse next time his friends need to move a sofa bed.

JACKSON WANTS PLAYERS MIC’ED UP

With the prospect of playing NFL games without fans almost a certainty at this point, Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson has proposed an interesting idea to make the games more compelling for fans at home.

Jackson wants players mic’ed up so fans at home can hear the trash talk and banter between them during the game.

“I think they should (mic up players),” Jackson told his teammate, Lane Johnson, on his podcast. “They should give fans the (insight) to see what really goes on between the white lines. It gets crazy, bro. I know in the trenches it gets crazy. And I know on the outside it gets crazy, too, the conversations we go back and forth on.”

Jackson’s idea might be too good. Much like the new camera angles the NBC used during a foggy game at Gillette Stadium three years ago, it might be a change that won’t go away once even fans return.

GRONK LOSES WWE BELT

His reign as the WWE’s 24/7 champion lasted just 58 days. Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski was pinned in his own backyard by some guy named R-Truth to lose the title belt Monday. 

R-Truth (again, no clue and I’m not looking him up) apparently disguised himself as a landscaper to “blindside” Gronkowski for the pin in what I’m sure was a completely unplanned result that happened on a day when, maybe, feigning a break in and assault wasn’t the smartest PR move.