Jon Beason Transcript

LB Jon Beason
September 18, 2014

Q: How is the foot?
A: It’s feeling better, surprisingly better, I would say. In the game I stepped on someone’s foot and it felt like… I felt a pop. It scared me right away, we went and got some pictures, but it’s feeling a lot better right away, so it’s an indication that it’s probably just scar tissue moving. I head down to Charlotte tomorrow to see Dr. Anderson and get his opinion. There are some things that he can do that you can’t see in the imaging with the MRI in terms of active movement and then we’ll determine how severe it is. But it feels good, so that’s a good indication.

Q: You left in a boot, you don’t have a boot now obviously. When did you ditch that?
A: Yesterday when I saw Dr. Warren. He’s been in constant communication with Dr. Anderson and it was based on how I felt. You put it in a boot right away just to take all precautions to make sure you don’t make it worse than it really is.

Q: Did anyone warn you that this might happen?
A: Yeah. That was, really right before I came back, they said it was possible. You change your footwear, you put a steel plate in the bottom of the shoe, you tape it differently, all these things to prevent it. The turf is a little rougher than grass, we practice on grass right now. It happened to be when I was on someone’s foot, so now I’m toey instead of being on the balls of my feet, which puts my big toe at a disadvantage.

Q: So when you say it’s feeling a little better, what do you think your time frame is? Do you have any idea? Are we talking days? Weeks?
A: Well, it feels a whole lot better right away and when is a whole lot… it’s not a little bit based on the way it felt Sunday. Sunday to Tuesday was huge. If Dr. Anderson was accessible earlier in the week, he had cases, he’s out of town, Friday was the earliest day we could do that. Now I have to kind of wait and see, but based on how I feel, I want to make sure everything’s good and we’ll determine when is a good time to come back.

Q: But it wouldn’t be this week obviously.
A: I’m not sure. I feel like I could go out there and take care of business. I’m active in the meetings, I know the game plan, I’m still studying and preparing as if I’m playing on Sunday.

Q: Are you able to jog or do anything physical?
A: I feel like I can.

Q: Have you tested that though?
A: I feel like I can. I’ve been recommended not to until we talk to Dr. Anderson, so it’s all kind of depending on his professional opinion.

Q: You had the day last week where you didn’t practice. Was that a precursor to it or do you think it was completely separate?
A: Complete separate, just because when you do it, I thought I was just pushing on somebody and it just went on me. Then you go back and you watch the tape and you’re just like, ‘I stepped on somebody.’ That’s being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It can happen, but that would aggravate it more than anything else. That hardly ever happens but it did.

Q: From the pictures they’ve taken, any indication that anything’s changed in there from when you did come back?
A: The problem is the images that we took on Monday are being compared to the images from June 12, which was injured more, so it’s hard to determine what’s scar tissue and what’s not. The good thing is the images from Monday show scar tissue, which means there’s healing. How do you really compare? You have to really do a physical test on it.

Q: Have they completely ruled out that it’s fractured again?
A: Based on how it feels, the fact that I can walk on it. When I first did it, I couldn’t walk.

Q: You’re talking about when you first did it…?
A: In June. I could not walk. Sunday night, I felt like I could walk on it. And then Monday it felt a little better and then Tuesday it felt drastically better, which is good.