Green Bay Packers
Packers' Cobb suspects mic he wore in playoffs caused punctured lung
Green Bay Packers

Packers' Cobb suspects mic he wore in playoffs caused punctured lung

Published Feb. 3, 2016 7:29 p.m. ET

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb suffered a punctured lung while making an incredible catch in his team's 26-20 divisional-round playoff loss to the Arizona Cardinals last month. Shortly after hauling in that penalty-negated pass, he spit up blood on the sideline and ended up spending the night in a local hospital while the rest of his teammates flew back to Green Bay.

Since he did not fracture a rib, Cobb suspects that his serious lung injury was caused by a microphone he was wearing in his shoulder pads.

Via The Jim Rome Show:

I made the catch. I got up and felt fine. I was walking back to the huddle, and I just noticed that it got harder for me to breathe, and then it felt like I was going to throw up. It felt like I was choking on something, so I went to throw up and then I started spitting up blood and it was kind of a crazy moment. Then I went back and got the chest x-ray. I didn’t break a rib, I didn’t fracture a rib, which is really abnormal to puncture a lung without that, but I was mic’d up for the game.

The battery pack for the mic was on my shoulder pads. I landed flush on my back during the catch, and I punctured my lung. There’s no way to prove that, but it’s kind of crazy that I punctured a lung without fracturing my rib.

Players have worn on-field microphones for years to capture the grunts, celebrations and smack talk that can't be heard during a normal broadcast. Some players have even been injured while wearing a microphone, but you would be hard-pressed to find a confirmed instance of a player who was injured by his microphone.

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Cobb's injury, as rare as it was, may draw some attention to what previously seemed like a harmless practice and could cause some players to think twice about wearing a microphone on the field for a game.

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