A tale of two MCLs: Is Lindsey Vonn tougher than Jay Cutler?

As you may know, skier Lindsey Vonn has pretty much the same injury as Jay Cutler: an MCL sprain. But then, that doesn’t seem to be slowing her down much. Check this out:

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (KTTC-DT/AP) — Lindsey Vonn won’t allow a suspected sprained MCL in her left knee to sideline her season. The U.S. skier has competed in pain before, winning the downhill at the Vancouver Olympics last winter on a badly bruised shin.

But trailing in the standings remains quite foreign. Vonn sits 145 points behind friend and rival Maria Riesch of Germany, a gap that Vonn’s convinced she can still make up.

Vonn suffered her knee injury trying to recover from a big mistake in a downhill race last Saturday, only to return the next day and win a super-G event.

No sulking on the sideline, none of her fans calling her a quitter and burning her her jersey in effigy. So, the musical question being asked by many: Is a ski chick tougher than Jay Cutler?

For the answer, I decided to check in with my friend and resident Off the Bench sports physical therapist Alice Kahl, of OrthoSport Physical Therapy in Baltimore.

“From what I’ve heard, the two injuries are similar, mild grade two MCL sprains” Kahl said. “But even then they can vary in degree. When I first heard the criticism of Cutler, I kind of blew that off, because no one knows exactly how serious it was. The thing you have to remember is that they probably had him doing all kinds of functional things in the locker room during halftime, and said ‘OK, let’s see how it goes in the third quarter.’ And obviously it didn’t go well, and they pulled him. Perfectly understandable. I’ll agree that he didn’t look like he was hurt, and that was his big mistake. Maybe if he went out there on crutches he wouldn’t be taking this criticism now.”

But what of Vonn, who not only doesn’t need crutches, but is competing at a high level with a similar injury?

“A skier does different things with her knees than a football player,” Kahl said. “Lindsey, she probably wears a brace, and that helps her compete. But she doesn’t have to cut and pivot on her bad knee, like a football player. A lot of top-line skiers are missing ACLs. Cutler can probably walk fine, and so can Lindsey. But when you try and use that inside portion of the knee, where the MCL is, to make cuts and plant your leg to throw, it just doesn’t work.”

Some have asked why Cutler wasn’t wearing an ice pack. “Well, it was like a million degrees below zero in Chicago,” Kahl said. “Who needs ice? Being from Buffalo, I can tell you that sometimes you don’t need one outdoors.”

Kahl also noted that no one is questioning Maurkice Pouncey’s toughness after the Steelers announced that he wouldn’t be playing in the Super Bowl due to a sprained ankle.

“My advice to Cutler is to let it heal, and not take the stairs,” Kahl said. “At this point, it’s all about the perception.”

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Lindsey Vonn gaining on Riesch in World Cup standings [KTTC]
Lindsey Vonn, Jay Cutler and knee-jerk reactions [Los Angeles Times]