According to ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter, former first round pick Nick Fairley has been dealt a crushing blow regarding his NFL career.
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Fairley, who's currently with the New Orleans Saints, has been placed on the non-football injury reserve list, which means he'll miss the 2017 season.
According to Josh Katzenstein of NOLA.com, it's likely that Fairley will never play football again. The 6-foot-4, 308-pound defensive tackle saw at least three heart specialists in the lead-up to this decision, per Katzenstein, appointments that were the result of a team doctor finding an irregularity in his heart after a new contract mandated physical in March.
Heading into 2016, Fairley signed a one-year contract with the Saints, a contract that was renewed after he put up 43 tackles, nine tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks — arguably the best season of his career. The Saints rewarded him with a four-year contract extension worth $28 million, but according to Katzenstein's reporting, the organization is apparently already looking into getting some of that money back now that Fairley is 100-percent ruled out of play in 2017, and perhaps indefinitely.
It's not as if Fairley's heart issue was unknown heading into his large contract extension. His heart condition — an enlarged heart — was diagnosed at the 2011 NFL scouting combine, but it didn't stop the Detroit Lions from drafting him No. 13 overall, adding him to a defensive front that at the time featured Ndamukong Suh
Fairley never quite lived up to expectations coming out of Auburn, at least as a rookie, but his second and third seasons in Detroit saw him notch 5.5 and 6.0 sacks, respectively. He played only eight games in 2014 due to a knee injury, and he spent 2015 with the St. Louis Rams, notching only 18 tackles and half a sack.
The Saints took a flyer on Fairley, who has always had tremendous talent and potential but did have some "motor concerns", and that paid off in a big way for both parties. The contract extension was supposed to be the high point of Fairley's NFL career to date, and expectations were extremely high for him heading into the 2017 season.
Those expectations are officially put on hold now, though, and it seems more than likely that Fairley will have to leave the game in order to protect both his short-term and long-term heart. Enlarged hearts aren't extremely uncommon in athletes, but considering his size and the rigors of an NFL season, it makes sense that the Saints don't want to take the chance.
According to reports, he had one specialist who told him to hang up the cleats while another said he could keep playing. Fairley was sent to the third specialist to get one more opinion and apparently the Saints had enough information after that visit to make the tough decision to put him on the non-football injury list.
Considering their investment and Fairley's potential in 2017, this couldn't have come at a worse time, but it's also a great reminder that there are more important things for players than football — such as health.
