:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62762771/usa_today_11858435.0.jpg)
While the Pittsburgh Steelers offered plenty of detail about a phantom knee injury for Antonio Brown last week, very little was said about an injury to Chris Boswell considered severe enough to place him on injured reserve.
Mike Tomlin would offer a rather basic explanation for the series of events that would lead to the decision on Friday, but at no point would anyone associated with the team actually explain what the issue was. As he told Bob Labriola of Steelers.com.
“Last Sunday, Chris Boswell experienced pain and discomfort just prior to the game against the Saints. He got some treatment, and we were able to get him through the game. His next scheduled extended work day in any given week is on a Thursday. Thursday is a heavy kick day for him, and he was able to complete his work in totality on Thursday but he experienced similar discomfort. Because we had already explored Matt and brought him in a few weeks ago, it was something as simple as a phone call. We came off the field, we came to that determination, and so we called Matt and put Boz on IR.”
However, if a social media post from his brother is to be believed, it turns out Boswell was actually dealing with a far more significant injury that Tomlin’s remarks about discomfort suggested.
And Chris has a grade 2 tear in his groin, since nobody wanna report it.
— Stephen Boswell (@goawayBos) December 30, 2018
With no context as to when this grade-two groin tear might have occurred, it is impossible to know if it was an issue for Boswell before the game against the New Orleans Saints, but it is strange to note this information was not released by the team if true.
Given the details the team shared about an allegedly fake knee injury to Brown, even going as far as to tell reporters he was undergoing specialist testing on Friday, the detail offered about Boswell by comparison was clearly lacking. At a time when some in the media were suggesting Pittsburgh actually had ulterior motives for placing Boswell on IR, it would be fair to question why the team might have been promoting lies about Brown when they should have been protecting Boswell from some undue negative publicity.