Dallas Goedert, rumors of broken arm and near-panic among Eagles fans

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It was a quiet, uneventful Saturday night for Eagles rookie tight end Dallas Goedert when he signed onto Twitter and learned that he had broken his arm.

“I was like, ‘I broke my arm? That’s news to me,’” Goedert said with a laugh at his locker Sunday. “Luckily, I was able to go right to the source.”

Welcome to 2018, where the most ridiculous unsubstantiated rumor can cause a near-panic among Eagles fans. 

It all began when Goedert got banged up during open practice at the Linc on Saturday and left early.

Then Twitter went nuts.

“Someone” saw him with an air cast. “Someone” heard he broke his arm. “Someone” said he’d be out for six to eight weeks.

Never mind that “someone” didn’t exist, and this was all a modern-day version of Whisper Down the Lane, that kids game where a story gets more and more distorted the more it’s passed along.

It didn’t help that Eagles team policy is that there’s never any comment about injuries unless it comes from head coach Doug Pederson, and he had already met with the media before practice Saturday.

So even though there was absolutely no reason on Earth to think Goedert had suffered a serious injury, Twitter was convinced he had.

The reality is that football players get banged up at practice every day.

Most of them don’t have broken arms.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Goedert said. “It’s kind of what the social media world does. People overreact.

“Nobody was sure. I had a broken arm, but they weren’t sure. I had this and that. People were just saying things. It was nice that I knew what was going on.”

So what happened?

“It’s just a minor injury,” Goedert said. “Just a minor little nick. …

“Should be back in the next day or two. Nothing serious. Just a bump and a bruise type thing, ya know?”

Goedert didn’t practice Sunday. The Eagles are scheduled to practice Monday and Tuesday before an off-day Wednesday. They face the Patriots in Foxboro, Massachusetts, on Thursday.

Goedert had a good sense of humor about the rumors of his impending doom.

Here’s a 23-year-old kid from a town in South Dakota with a population of 1,241 who played college football at an obscure NCAA FCS school in a town on the South Dakota-Minnesota border who all of a sudden is in one of the largest markets in the country.

Things happen here that don’t happen anywhere else.

In fact, Google “Dallas Goedert” and “broken arm” right now and see what comes up.

It’s nuts.

“It is kind of weird,” he said. “But we have great fans here and they care, and that’s kind of why they’re putting it out there, because they care. It’s a pretty cool feeling, but it is weird.”

Goedert, the Eagles’ rookie second-round pick, had an auspicious debut Thursday night against the Steelers with four catches for 66 yards, including a touchdown, all in the first half.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “I can’t imagine a better debut.”

What about the injury itself?

Here’s what Goedert had to say when asked about his rehab: “Nothing really.”

And then he was off in a wheelchair to a waiting ambulance headed to the hospital. Has to be true! I read it on Twitter!

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