As the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield might have said, durability gets little respect among the array of positive player attributes that get cited in football conversations.
Qualities such as speed, toughness and the ability to make plays are always assigned more importance. If a guy is durable, that usually just gets tacked on at the end.
“He can do a lot for you,” it is said, “such as (fill in the blank depending on the player). Oh, and he’s also durable.”
Yeah, that, too.
Durability is the etcetera-etcetera of compliments, the yadda-yadda of praise.
But I’m here to argue it deserves more respect, especially in Baltimore, where the Ravens often point to injuries as having wrecked their plans during a recent run of non-playoff seasons.