Zach Orr’s reported comeback is more than a labor loophole

It was a tragic story last winter when it was announced that Baltimore Ravens linebacker Zachary Orr was walking away from football after a breakout 2016 season.

Orr had been in the NFL for three years, but last season was his first as a starter, and he ended up being a pleasant surprise in an otherwise middling Ravens season. After making $600,000 in 2016, he was set to have a nice payday in the offseason, though as a restricted free agent with Baltimore, perhaps not as nice as if he hit the open market.

Then in January, Orr held a surprise press conference to announce he could no longer play football because doctors warned him of a high risk of paralysis or death if he continued to play football. This was due to a C1 vertebra that was only roughly 80 percent formed following a neck injury sustained a month prior due to a rare congenital spine condition. He said doctors and specialists claimed he would never pass an NFL physical and, frankly, were shocked he had been able to play as long as he had without serious issue.

The theme of early retirements has been a sensitive one in the NFL in recent years, though the most prominent examples are voluntary decisions to leave the game due to concern about one’s future health, especially as it pertains to head injuries. Orr’s was clearly of a different ilk because of immediate risk and because he most assuredly did not want to leave football.

Even at his January press conference he hinted at the possibility of a miracle that would allow him to return to the NFL. That apparently came in the form of Stanford Emery, a spine specialist recommended to Orr by former Baylor quarterback Seth Russell. Emery told Orr, as did other doctors he visited this spring, that he’s at no higher risk of debilitating spine injury than any other football player in the NFL, provided he did not try to play with a herniated disk.

Orr’s return, should it come to pass, is a weird situation and one that the NFL will likely legislate to prevent player exploitation, however unlikely. Some cried foul that a player was able to announce his retirement only to return months later with another team, though that’s an extremely callous line of thinking. There’s no way this was a coordinated effort by Orr to hit the free agent market. After all, Ravens team doctors were among those telling the linebacker he was no longer fit to play, and the organization didn’t tender him an offer at the start of the offseason.

Orr already has a scheduled visit with the Detroit Lions and reports of interest from other teams. Given the stellar 2016 season he had, there’s little doubt he could reap a financial windfall in the open market if teams feel confident about his health. It’s such a rarity that a player has an opportunity to navigate a very team-friendly business culture in the NFL and make more money that it has to happen by accident. And yet there are still those who would see it as an injustice.

It’s understandable for Ravens fans to be dismayed with how things played out if, in fact, Orr is able to return and play again. It’s an unfortunate turn of events for the team. Of course, Ravens fans should also recall that it was only by bizarre circumstance involving a fax machine that Elvis Dumervil played the last four seasons in Baltimore. So if they can appreciate the fact that fate has given them what amounts to a wash in linebacker-related oddities in recent years, they like everyone else can be happy that a 25-year-old can continue playing the sport he loves and perhaps have his first handsome payday in the process.