This was the time of year Arryn Siposs trained for, when the weather dips below freezing, and winter’s winds start making the eyes water and a football do tricks in the air.
The Eagles’ punter admitted during this past training camp that he didn’t finish last season as strong as his first year in the league began, so he went back to his native Australia, and even though spring was coming Down Under, he found a spot near a lake where the wind blows hard and got to work.
That training won’t have a chance to manifest itself in December after Siposs was placed on Injured Reserve on Tuesday after suffering a left ankle injury during Sunday’s 48-22 win over the New York Giants.
He is out until at least the regular-season finale.
Veteran punter Brett Kern will take his place. He will handle the punting and holding chores that Siposs had done.
“Very fortunate he was not on an active roster right now, so having Brett being a veteran guy who's also a very good holder out there, has been in some playoff games in terms of his career,” said special team coordinator Michael Clay on Tuesday.
Siposs was hurt after his punt was blocked in the end zone. He scooped it up with one arm and tried to race for a first down. Instead, he stepped out of bounds short of the line to gain then got popped by New York’s Jason Pinnock while out of bounds.
No penalty flag for a late hit was thrown.
Clay, tip-toed gently around questions about whether he thought it was a penalty, preferring instead to discuss the human element to Siposs’ injury.
“As a coach or as a teammate, when you walk into the locker room after a big win and you see a guy you've been spending two years with on crutches and you go and try to console him and he just puts his head down, everyone is a human being, and it hurts,” said Clay.
The blocked punt, obviously, wasn’t ideal for a special team unit that has had trouble finding consistency all season.
Clay said when a team is backed up the way the Eagles were, with the snap to Siposs coming from about the half-yard line, the punt team has to be 100 percent perfect.
“And we weren't,” said Clay.
While there were a couple of long kickoff returns from Boston Scott and sure-handed tackling on coverage units, it doesn’t seem enough to Clay to offset the loss of Siposs.
“I don’t have kids or anything like that, but these guys, Arryn, (long snapper) Rick (Lovato), and (kicker) Jake (Elliott), I look after them like they're my siblings or kids, and having him put his head down and just try to console him, that hurts,” he said.
“But it's part of life. It's part of the game. Injuries happen. It's unfortunate. We're going to keep Arryn's spirits up, but we also have an opportunity to go very far in this season, and he's contributed to that, so we're going to make sure that regardless of who's out there, we're going to try and put our best foot forward.”
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