(07-16-2017, 04:31 PM)TealHammer Wrote: The elephant in the room with Fred Taylor is the suspicion that he was a malingerer. The "Fragile Freddy" nickname is obviously a pejorative. I remember a lot of talk during his career when he was missing games about how hurt he was or was not. Taylor has made statments later about how injured he was that was not disclosed to him at that time.

There is no way to know if he was a malingerer or just plagued by a ton of injuries. The thing that seems suspicious to me was how he suddenly was rejuvenated and able to stay healthy after we drafted a stud MJD in round 2.

I've never known this to actually be a concern about Fred.  Clearly you think it is and maybe a few others do, but I've never known it to be anything approaching an "elephant in the room" or even a moderately popular opinion about Fred. 

Fred just wasn't one of those guys. He had some bad luck and some bad injuries. It happens to LOTS of football players. Not many of them rise above it to the level Fred did.  And it's now been established that he played through a broken collarbone and injuries to both shoulders that team doctors allegedly "overlooked."

"Malingerer" just doesn't fit here. 

He was able to stay fresh later in his career because he was:
A  -  splitting carries
B - Taking care of his body properly.  He's talked in numerous interviews about being naive to nutrition, sleep and conditioning as a young pro. I've actually heard him personally talk about the changes he made from going to McDonalds after practice in his early years to building a diet around his training and re-hab, keeping a sleep journal etc later in his career. 

There's nothing "suspicious" about that.

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