Lovie Smith's silence on injury details makes bounty sense

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On more than a few occasions during his coaching tenure, coach Lovie Smith has drawn media fire for maintaining a dark cloak over the injury status or details of his players.

Now one of his own players provides a case study in why injury information is among the last things that players should want out in the media or anywhere else.

Wide receiver Devin Thomas wont face any punishment from the NFL over bounty issues. But as a member of the New York Giants going into the NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers, Thomas knew that 49ers returner Kyle Williams had suffered concussions.

Thomas did not deliver blows to Williams head but Williams did put two balls on the ground, both recovered by Thomas, who thought the concussion information valuable.

The whole concept of him having concussions is you know hes been hit a lot, Thomas told Newsdays Bob Glauber following the game and cited by ESPN.coms NFC East blogger Dan Graziano.

You worry about getting hit instead of protecting the ball or whatnot. Theres things like that that you key on putting a good hit on him.

Graziano makes the good point that had there been a blow to Williams head, Thomas or the Giants might be answering some questions from the Commissioner as well.

But the fact that Thomas and teammates were probably as well versed on opponents injuries as they were on tendencies should make it more than a little obvious why Smith is indeed doing his players a favor when hes maddeningly vague on injuries.

Someone in Green Bay is probably listening.

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