Tampa Bay cornerback Torrie Cox is dealing with a facial laceration after teammate Aqib Talib inadvertently hit him with a helmet during the team's practice Wednesday. Hey, accidents happen, right? Of course they do.Except that this only partially qualifies as an accident. Cox's injury came when he stepped between Talib and Bucs offensive lineman Donald Penn -- the actual target of Talib's helmet swing.
According to this agent, Peter Schaffer, Cox was trying to intervene when he was struck by Talib's helmet. Schaffer echoed Penn's statements to us earlier today, saying Cox's injuries were relatively minor.That's good news for Cox, and it's possible that his unfortunate timing made the situation seem a little worse than it actually was. Penn's post-tussle comment mostly blows the situation off: "Everything is fine. Brothers fight all the time. It happens," he said, according to the St. Petersburg Times.
Hardly sounds like a guy who was about to get a peck on the cheek from someone else's facemask.
Regardless, Talib may be facing some internal discipline from the team -- misfortune or not, anytime you're involved in a practice skirmish that ends with you hitting a teammate in the face with your helmet, there are going to be issues.
The Bucs released a statement later, saying, "We are discussing the specifics of this situation and will provide an update as we proceed."
