James Laurinaitis has never felt so limited before.
His right arm felt useless. Laurinaitis couldn’t straighten his arm or bend it all the way, couldn’t bench-press, couldn’t press any kind of weight, couldn’t play the way he’s been playing his whole life.
Laurinaitis had torn the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow in Week 6 against the Cleveland Browns. Until that point, Laurinaitis had seemed indestructible, a borderline mythical figure who played one of the game’s most physical positions but never complained about pain.
Worst of all, he had to wear a brace that began at the middle of his biceps and stretched to the middle of his forearm — a massive piece of equipment that looked like the sort of bionic exoskeleton a futuristic warrior might wear in a summer blockbuster.