There's something to admire about Morgan Cox.

A lot, actually. And he's not the only one to admire in this story. Cox is the Ravens' long-snapper. Was. Last week, early in the second quarter, he got hurt in a pileup on a Baltimore field-goal try. Hurt would be putting it mildly. Actually, 700 pounds of lineman -- Cleveland defensive tackle Shaun Rogers and Baltimore guard Marshall Yanda -- fell on his left leg after he'd snapped the ball for the field goal, and the knee concaved to the right. Cox screamed so loud, Rogers said, that he knew he was hurt severely. Somehow, Cox limped to the sideline, where he collapsed and started rolling around in pain. "An extreme amount of pain,'' he said.

At first, docs thought it was an MCL tear, but that he could return to the game and gut it out. At halftime, upon further review in the locker room, he said he was diagnosed with grade-three (severe, that is) ACL and MCL tears. "But I knew I could get the job done,'' he said. "There's lot of different ways of snapping. Some guys use their legs for power. I pretty much do it all with my arms. And I don't think it fully registered with me how serious it was. It was a big game, and I said, I'm fine to play. I went up to the guys on the line, and said, 'I'm gonna need some help. I'm gonna get the snap off, but you gotta help me after that.' So when we went back out there, I heard Michael Oher say to the Browns, 'Stay off the snapper, stay off the snapper.' ''

There's a fine line here between playing hard and being sympathetic to a wounded competitor, and Rogers did a gallant job straddling it in the second half. Rogers knew Cox was injured; he'd heard him scream in agony after the injury. On an extra point try, after the ball was over the line, Rogers saw Cox falling back awkwardly. He reached over and grabbed Cox's jersey to prevent him from falling and perhaps hurting the leg further. "Unbelievable,'' Cox said. "I felt this hand hold me up and just figured it was one of our guys, but it was Shaun Rogers. I'll never forget him for that.''

I called the Browns and asked to speak to Rogers, but he declined. He said the play was over, and he knew the kid was hurt, and it was something even major rivals would do for each other. No big deal.

I think it is a big deal. As was the game ball Cox got in the locker room. "Very courageous thing you did, Morgan,'' Harbaugh told him. "That was a thrill,'' Cox said. "An unbelievable honor. Probably the thing I'll always remember is Terrell Suggs coming up to me, surprised, during the game and saying, 'He's still snapping! He's still in the game!' But he did remind me I was still a rookie.'' After that game, I'd call Cox an honorary veteran.
Cox will be in the office of noted orthopedist James Andrews on Tuesday, with a plan for surgery to repair the ligaments.


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/01/02/week-17/index.html#ixzz19zxN9yxk