The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

That's why he missed a lot of training camp. You know it would be nice if the media would deem it a story if one of the starting WR's has an unscheduled surgery. Guess it's more important to have like 15 stories on Chad Johnson and his multiple last names. You know if he would have missed training camp to go to a hearing on his drunk driving charge we would have heard about it for a month straight.

It was reported. Coach said he was out for personal reasons. A few days later the media found out he had his appendix removed and attempted to call Philben a liar. He reiterrated that he felt it was a personal issue and if Hartline wanted people to know he would tell them. He wasn't required to report anything as it isn't football related.

Would Philbin even be ALLOWED to share that with the media? (HIPPA)

Philbin isn't a healthcare worker so I don't think HIPPA laws would pertain. Also I expect there is some exemption as health infromation of professional athletes is released all the time.

Philbin was correct.  It is not a football-related injury, therefore it is personal reasons.

Replace "appendicitis" with "gonorrhea" and this becomes crystal clear.

You all are missing my point. My point wasn't whether or not Philbin reported it, but rather that when Hartline reported it, no one gives a damn because it's not sensationalist journalism. If he had reported that he was holding out for more money the press would have been all over it for weeks on end. Have a serious medical condition, the press couldn't give a damn, have a speeding ticket and they are lining up to write the story.

The important part of the equation is that he missed a month of camp and yet I barely heard a word about it once they found out it was due to circumstances beyond his control. If you are reporting football news then it should be just as big of a story that Hartline missed most of training camp because of a serious medical condition, perhaps even more important as his ability to recover from that condition may impact his play. Obviously reporting on the Dolphins isn't nearly as important as getting folks to visit the website. That's my beef.

Pappy13, your point is self-explanatory; the talking heads can't jump on the telly and yammer about how selfish and spoiled Hartline is for contracting appendicitis, but they can do that if he's holding out for more money, or if he injures himself doing wheelies on a motorcycle, or if he's caught with a gun in Da Cluuub.

Sports media outlets are only interested in news stories to the extent that they can unceasingly overanalyze them.

The reason is, an overanalyzed story that gets people to gossip also sells newspapers/magazines.

Since the team is the employer and paying for medical care, I'm fairly sure they are subject to at least some regulations (whether HIPPA or otherwise).

Cf. http://byucougars.com/athletics/hippa-101

Right. Now wouldn't it be nice if it didn't have to be that way? That's all that I was saying.

There is probably some sort of regulation (not sure college athletes would fall under the same areas though) but I would expect they have waived some things. Afterall, just about every newspapaer I have ever read has NFL approved injury reports in it.

It would be great.  And this goes for all media in all arenas - politics, religion, everything.

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Only if he wanted to get sued.

I think injury reports only cover football-related injuries, though.

If a player had a non-football medical condition (e.g. mono), I find it hard to believe that the NFL would be able to broadcast that information without his consent.