Coy Wire to have neck surgery

[T-Long]

I wasn't allowed saying anything about it, but I found out about 2 weeks ago when I talked to Coy and my old roomate. They said his injury was worse than they thought. They didn't want it to leak out that he was having surgery, but bb.com found out. I am gonna find out today if Coy actually let them release it or how people found out. They wanted to keep it VERY quiet for some reason, hence why I wasn't allowed saying anything. I'll talk to him today and post later what I find out.

**Update**

Coy is having his surgery at 12pm ET time tomorrow (Thursday). Coy was asked by Chris Brown about the surgery, and that's why he was interviewed about it on bb.com

[G. Host]

Good luck Coy. I knew because I know his father from some fund raising but was going to post the information since I saw the Chris Brown post.

[shelby]

i'll keep him in my prayers....he's my favorite Bill.
:pray:

[shelby]

Here's a link to the interview for anyone who's interested:

click here (http://www.buffalobills.com/multimedia/index.jsp?FILE_300=http://play.rbn.com/?url=nfl/nfl/open/bills/wmdemand/06billsfocus/010208wire.wmv&proto=mms?mswmext=.asx)

[bills&sabresmvf]

It's all because of his giant head! Geezzzz (just playin'), good luck Coy!

[jdbillsfan]

I wonder why they are trying to keep the Coy Wire injury quiet? So the other teams don't have to game plan for him?

[Michael82]

I wonder why they are trying to keep the Coy Wire injury quiet? So the other teams don't have to game plan for him?
Probably because of those pesky "medical privacy" laws. :idunno:

[HHURRICANE]

Three neck injuries in one year??

I know we aren't supposed to blame injuires on the staff or coaching but I'm really starting to wonder.

[trapezeus]

perhaps he has to keep it quiet to not get cut prior to the surgery. i don't know.

Anyhow, COy put in some good time here and was a valuable SP player. i think Jim Leonard is pretty much ready to take over in that role going forward.

Coy Wire should probably call it quits. neck injuries are no joke and he's had a couple serious injuries this year alone.

[mybills]

If he knew 2 weeks ago, before Kevin Everett came to visit, I'd be quiet about it, too.
Speedy recovery, Coy! :pray:

[jamze132]

if he can fully recover, I would welcome him back to the ST unit, and that unit alone.

[LifetimeBillsFan]

I kind of suspected that this might be the case (in a couple of recent posts I talked about "if Wire returns next season") because of the way that they weren't talking about his injury in the media.

As someone who has serious neck and back problems (some likely as a result of sports injuries) and has done some research into neck surgeries (including talking with some people who have had them done), I definitely hope that everything goes well for Coy Wire. Any kind of surgery involving the cervical vertebrae and/or the muscles that support them is very delicate and risky, so I really hope that things go well and his surgery is successful (from what I read in the SI article about K.Everett, it sounds like there are some really fine neurosurgeons in Buffalo, which is very encouraging!).

As I mentioned in those previous posts, Coy Wire has options outside of football that he may choose to turn to if, after his surgery, he feels that he would be risking his future health too much by playing again. If his injury is as serious as it appears, he may just decide to retire.

Whether Wire returns to the Bills or not next season will have a definite impact on what the team decides to do in the offseason. While a lot of Bills fans didn't see Wire as adding much to the team as a back-up LB, IMHO the coaching staff saw him as an important role-player for them on defense: in particular, with his experience at SS, he gave them a better option to use against the two TE offensive sets that have become popular in the NFL in recent years because he could cover a TE better than a conventional LB (the Bills used 4 LB sets to match up with the 2 TE sets with some success using Wire this season). It will be difficult for them to find a player to replace him in that role right away, unless they decide to have John Wendling bulk up for that purpose. In addition, Wire was just growing into the LB position and did offer them a chance to spell Ellison at times. The fact that Wire did play a role on defense that the coaching staff would consider important could explain why neither Wire nor the team said much about the severity of his injury before the end of the season.

Because Wire did offer them some production on defense in addition to his excellent play on special teams, he was more valuable than some of their other special teams' "aces". With Sam Aiken, Josh Stamer and Mario Haggan all becoming free agents this offseason, the Bills are going to be facing a decision on how aggressive they will be in trying to re-sign one or all of them. If Wire were to return, healthy, the Bills could more easily afford to let a Josh Stamer go. If Wire does not return, they may feel that they will either have to bring back Stamer (or Haggan) or draft a OLB (or big SS) to replace Wire--especially if they do not feel that L.Joe and/or B.Costanzo can give them the kind of ST play that they were getting from Wire and/or Stamer/Haggan.

So, in that regard, Wire's injury and the outcome of his surgery will have an impact on some of the decisions that the team makes this offseason.

Finally, HIPA laws forbid the releasing of medical information unless the patient (or his/her legal surrogate) permits the information to be released. While it is generally the case that a player will give his team a blanket release that will allow the team's doctors to see his medical records, particular if he suffers an injury while playing or practicing (while on the job), players have been known to hide the severity of their injuries from their coaches and teams for various, often personal, reasons. It is possible that this was the case with Coy Wire, but, then again, it is also possible that the team knew about the severity of the injury, but both parties chose to keep it quiet for their own individual reasons.

I don't know what Coy Wire's contract status is or whether he has played long enough to be fully vested in the NFL's new disability and retirement programs. One possible reason to keep him on the roster and keep quiet about his injury until after the season might have been to allow Wire to accumulate enough "service time" in the league to be eligible for certain benefits offered by the league should he not play again after his surgery. (If I am not mistaken--I know there used to be something like this in the CBA in the past, players with 5 years service--counted, I think in games on the active roster, although I am not sure how it is calculated--get significantly better benefits than those with less time in the league.) But, at this point I am just speculating....

Whatever the reasons were for keeping this information out of the media--and there could have been a host of reasons, I think we all hope that the surgery is successful and that Coy Wire is able to recover well enough to be able to return to the Bills if he chooses to or to have a long and healthy career doing whatever he chooses to do if he doesn't play football afterwards. He may not have been a great star for the Bills, but he was a nice, charitable guy who gave all of what he could to the team when he was on the field during the time he has been with the Bills.

[mybills]

Vinny Paz broke his neck, then went back in the ring to box his way to a few more wins. So it just depends on the severity of it. Anyone have an update on Peerless Price's neck injury?

[Meathead]

before after

http://assets.buffalobills.com/uploads/players/68A35FA8BE1C4C6484AC6CFC18D04EE8.jpghttp://i.treehugger.com/images/2007/10/24/frankenstein-jj-001.jpg

[THATHURMANATOR]

Hope it goes well!