Matt Summers, the Bengals director of sports medicine, found that out when he was at Louisville all those years ago. Russ Yeast came into the training room the day after the '19 home finale against Syracuse for the weekly injury re-check following a painful night of no sleep.
The knee was bad, but there was something more as Summers felt below the knee, where there was sharp, intense pain. It felt tight. Something wasn't right, and Summers knew the right thing was to get him to the hospital quickly.
Lower leg compartment syndrome. The blood rushed into the compartments, and the fear was amputation or drop foot.
"A loss of a lot of functionality," Summers says. "They went right into surgery, both sides of the lower leg, and drained the blood of there."
With COVID, the four surgeries and the endless rehab, they somehow got back for the 2020 opener. It is, Kovacs believes, an example of why the practice squad guys elicit the most emotion from their teammates on Sundays.
"It's like being a walk-on in college," says Kovacs, a walk-on at Michigan who was also a practice squad player for, of all teams, the Dolphins. "These guys are really the lifeblood, the culture of your program.
"You can look at the practice squad the same way. These guys carry the culture in some way. They've overcome a lot. As a teammate, coach, you love those guys … When a guy like that who hasn't been out there in a long time makes plays, that's the most amped up an NFL sideline gets.
Yeast and Jules are one in the same but vastly different. Yeast overcame his injury to get 20 snaps in a playoff game with the Rams. Jules overcame poverty and a stutter to play the most demanding defensive position at the highest level when it comes to communication. Jules is a ball of fire, a guy Battle has to remind, "PJ, take it easy on your teammates." The glacial Yeast is back there calculating.
"When he was a sophomore," Craig Yeast says of his high school days, "I asked him to get up and explain the play that we were installing, and he was able to get up and articulate every detail of what I was looking for in that play, from the offensive line to the quarterback to the tight ends to the receivers and to the running back, he knew every single detail. He knew exactly what to say. He could also draw it while he was talking."
That's why Craig thinks he'll be a coach. Battle's not so sure. He knows there is a business in his hometown of Danville, Ky., called "Yeast Stables," where the family has show horses. Standard-breds. A Saddle-bred. Some ponies.
"He could be a coach," Battle says. "But I think he'll be a rancher."
This week, he sounds like a coach.
"Communication is going to be key this week. Just like like any other game," Russ Yeast says. "You know, getting the guys lined up, getting our cleats in the ground, just so we can play fast and keep it simple for the week."
"Either way," says Russ Yeast of a who-knows-who-dey week, "you have to be prepared."