As painful injuries go, one suffered by Dallas Cowboys offensive tackle Darrion Weems ranks high on the list.
Weems, a 24-year-old in his first year with Dallas, recently struggled to get a grip on the 325-pound bar in the weight room because of an injured thumb. The bar slipped and fell onto his chest.
"He has a thumb issue where he can't put his thumb around the bar, so it's kind of an open hand and the thing just kind of rolled off on him," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "So that's the issue there. We will see how he is day to day."
Weems' injury is the latest in a series of weight room miscues that are painful even to recall. In 2009 former USC running back Stafon Johnson dropped a 275-pound barbell on his throat. He recovered but went undrafted and never made an NFL team's regular-season roster.
Whitney Mercilus, a former Illinois star and 2012 first-round draft pick of the Houston Texans, lost the tip of his finger in a freak weight room accident.
As for Weems, all signs indicate that he'll recover.
"We think he's going to be back," Garrett said, "but I'm sure it's pretty painful."
