No player has perplexed the NFL landscape more in the past few months than cornerback Brandon Boykin due to his inability to stay on a roster.
After all, this is a young man who showed all sorts of promise with a breakout campaign in 2013 for the Philadelphia Eagles, a season in which he had six interceptions. However, the team threw fans and experts for a loop when they unceremoniously traded him in 2015 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Things got even more unusual due to Pittsburgh’s decision to not play him for much of the first 10 games of the year and only late in the season relented before sending him on his way this off-season.
Still no word was coming out as to why. Boykin was productive in the short instances where he got on the field and there was no word of him being a locker room problem. At last the mystery reached a new level of weird when he signed on with the NFC champion Carolina Panthers, a team in dire need of cornerback help and was released not long afterwards.
At last a bit of news broke that sheds some light on why this seemingly solid young corner can’t get an opportunity with another team. The Philly Influencer explains.
"“Steelers defensive backs coach Carnell Lake provided some interesting details Saturday while speaking at the Steelers’ Men’s Fantasy Football Camp. Steelers fan Craig Scott was in attendance during Lake’s speech and explained via twitter that Boykin had a “degenerative hip condition.”"
There is no more terrifying buzz word to NFL teams than “degenerative condition.” It implies there is a limited shelf life on a given player and he puts himself at risk for substantial injury every time he takes the field because of it. Teams don’t want to be held responsible for letting something like that happen, thus they in effect blackball the player to keep him off the field.
It’s an unfortunate and ugly reality of the pro football game, especially nowadays when player health and safety is at the forefront of everything. One must feel for Brandon Boykin, who still shows he can be a good player.