When Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles four plays into the season on Monday Night Football, it stirred familiar feelings around the nation, and not just because something bad happened to the Jets.
Some, like the NFL Players Association and Rodgers’s former teammate David Bakhtiari, saw it as another example of artificial turf causing an injury. Others got flashbacks to 2019, when Kevin Durant sat out several Warriors playoff games with a Grade 1 right calf strain, returned for Game 5 of the NBA Finals, and promptly tore his right Achilles. Rodgers, after all, battled a calf injury this year.
Did turf cause the injury? Did his calf strain make him vulnerable? Was it a fluke? Could the Jets have seen this coming—and therefore taken preventative steps? Is there any way to predict Achilles tears?
