Jacksonville cursed for Chiefs after Hollywood Brown injury

All an NFL team wants is to get to the regular season with as many healthy players as possible. Unfortunately, football is a collision sport built around controlling violence. It’s one of the many reasons we love the game, but it can be problematic in weeks like these. In the Kansas City Chiefs’ first preseason game, one of their most important assets suffered a shoulder injury.

Hollywood Brown suffered a dislocated sternoclavicular joint in his first preseason game with the Chiefs. He was removed from the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, initially as a precaution, but it later turned out to be much more serious. After the game, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said it was the same injury that former Kansas City receiver Tyreek Hill suffered in 2019.

The good news is that the injury doesn’t appear to be season-ending, but Brown will be out. Hill missed four games five years ago, with the same injury in the same stadium against the same team. Obviously, the location of the injury needs to be monitored, since the joint in question is where the sternum and collarbone meet inside the chest.

The offseason hasn’t been kind to Chiefs receivers. Can we just move on to the regular season?

Kansas City lost its preseason opener to the Jaguars 26-13 on Saturday night.

While the Chiefs won’t face the Jaguars in the regular season, they did play last year, as well as in the AFC playoffs two seasons ago. While Kansas City is all but guaranteed to win the AFC North, Jacksonville is comfortably in the middle of the conference, hoping to catch the Houston Texans in the AFC South, or at the very least, be one of the three wild-card teams coming out of the AFC.

Kansas City has the opportunity to do something unprecedented in NFL history by winning its third consecutive Super Bowl. We’ve seen other teams string together dynastic wins, but they’ve never won three in a row. That’s what’s on the line for the Chiefs this year. I’m not saying they’re going to do it, but they have as good a chance as anyone. However, they can’t afford to see players like Brown miss any significant time.

Given the nature of his injury, one can only hope that Brown returns in mid-September after missing perhaps one major game. Obviously, he’s on ice for now. However, one has to wonder if Reid’s propensity to play most of his starters in the preseason is coming to an end. The Chiefs are the best team in the league right now, but not by much.

We’ll have more information on Brown’s unfortunate shoulder injury as new news emerges.