Injury Report: Kensing (Strep Throat) and Week 3 Picks

Early-season injuries and maladies that take players out of action are the worst. While I didn’t go down as soon into the campaign as Aaron Rodgers, I was not anticipating Week 2 for my annual illness brought home from my kids’ school.

And yet, last Friday as I put together my Week 2 picks, I began to feel my internal temperature rise. My throat tightened. I insisted to myself it was just autumn creeping in and I was adjusting to the atmosphere.

Nevertheless, I wore down early and never finished Week 2 picks. Then I woke up Saturday and it was apparent: I was sick.

And dear reader, when I tell you I was sick last Saturday, envision me on my couch throughout the day alternating between wearing basketball shorts and the Lilo & Stitch tank top my younger son picked out for me, which I was wearing because I was sweating more profusely than prime Patrick Ewing; to throwing flannel pants and a hoodie on because I was shivering.

Throwback to the 2020 season? Had I entered COVID protocols? An at-home test said no, my streak of 3 1/2 years without contracting coronavirus continued.

Plus, I didn’t know a sensation akin to swallowing razorblades to be a COVID symptom. No, that was a symptom of something else I unfortunately knew all-too-well: strep throat.

I had a remarkable streak of consecutive summers contracting strep throat on the last day at Lute Olson Basketball Camp. I managed to make it through high school only coming down with strep once or twice, but it hit me hard one year in college.

At the beginning of Finals Week in 2002, the familiar cold chills, broken internal thermostat and — worst of all — the swallowing of razorblades all hit. I will thus forever associate watching one of my all-time favorite college football games, the 2002 Mid-American Conference championship, with being laid out on my apartment living room couch.

Some might say my resolve in watching the entire 49-45 Marshall defeat of Toledo, exacting revenge for the previous season’s MAC Championship, was a moment on par with Thundering Herd offensive lineman carrying Byron Leftwich down the field as he led a touchdown drive on a broken fibula.

Anyway, last Saturday was a repeat performance. After getting antibiotics from urgent care, I parked myself on the couch for a heroic stretch of football-watching. I’m not entirely sure I processed all I witnessed: Was Texas thoroughly dominating Alabama in Tuscaloosa a fever dream?

Did South Dakota State really score the go-ahead touchdown with 90 seconds to rally past Montana State?

Was Arizona really an inch away from possibly beating Montana State after interceptions on its first three drives?

Meanwhile whereas in college fighting strep, when 48 hours later I was ready to crack open a beer, recovery time as you age increases.

I was without a voice until Wednesday, and still by Friday sound like I just left a rock concert, ergo no FCS Podcast episode this week. My energy’s slowly come back, so barring a major setback there will be a Points After this Saturday and a Pac-12 Tuesday on…well, Tuesday.

In the meantime, here are some picks!