January 15, 2026 • 10 mins
Hugh Millen joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the Sam Darnold new oblique injury, what issues that will cause for him, concerns about his playing and more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
There we go.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Apparently Sam Darnold is looking to bounce back from an
oblique injury. What do you say we get the one
guy on the air that I guarantee you knows what
it's like to have an oblique injury and can explain
what it's like to have an oblique injury as a quarterback.
Our friend Hugh Millon joining us right now in a pinch.
Wanted to call you up, Hugh, because we need information
and we need it fast. Sam Donald oblique injury, questionable
(00:25):
for the game on Saturday. He said he felt a
little something today at practice. Didn't want to push it,
but he did say the odds of him not playing
in the game are close to zero on Saturday. So
you tell me how concerned you are about this latest
news coming out of the vMac.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Well, not too much from a probability standpoint, but the
degree that we to which we should be concerned about
any unwanted event is the product of two factors, the
probability times of magnitude. I can tell you that he's
probably fine, But if he's not fine, and you're looking
at an indifferent period with Drew Locke, that would seemingly
(01:02):
be a large magnitude. I I I'm sure he's gonna
be fine. You're talking about a muscle that has uh.
You know, there's a large area there, large surface areas
away from the joints. You have predictable pain generators that
that that to me is ripe for an injection lytacane
(01:23):
or marcane or whatever it is that they use to
numb that. I'm sure he'll get a numb and and
he'll be good to go. That's the vast probability. But
I can't say that with one hundred sense certainty. There
may be a tweak there that just prevents him from going.
But I think we're fine.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
And when you think about you know, you stick the
ldacane as well, and you've got the the emotion of
the day, right, you've got your own endorphins that are
flowing through your body that are not flowing through your
body on a Thursday afternoon.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Right, unquestionably, Yeah, you can fight through a lot in
that regard that that that should be known as well, dick.
And so I think you're fine. You know, the left side,
he's the right handed quarterback. Obviously, you know it's a
rotational uh exercise, and and and there's a kinetic chain
to the revolution. Usually you want you know you're going
(02:12):
to have. It's like anybody who swing a golf club
can kind of relate to what's going on here. I mean,
you got your back swing that that is a strain
on your left side, and then as you swing your
golf club and your left side is going to be
part of the deceleration. But if if there was going
to be a yank and a real stretch, it would
(02:34):
be off the right side at the end the fall
through after the ball is gone. But but I think
either way, you know, I'm sitting there and saying, well,
what I would rather play with a left strained oblique
or right strained oblique depends on where it is what
from from a left standpoint, any discomfort that he has
he's going to feel before the ball goes you'd say, well,
(02:56):
that's we'd rather have it be uncomfortable after the ball goes. No,
not necessarily, because your mind, if it knows it's going
to feel discomfort, that can jack you up. It's like
a Hitchcock movie, you know, like he never wanted to
show the villain's face because he says, well, there the
fear of the unknown, and the and the and the mind.
(03:17):
The theater of the mind is stronger. Well, if if
you have a surge after you've let the ball go,
well your I promise you your brain knows that you're
gonna feel that after the ball's gone, and then all
of a sudden it causes it can cause your mechanics
to to uh, to get gummed up. And so I
would say he's he's more likely to feel it from
(03:38):
the left side as he stretches, and there's a there's
kind of what's called the X factor in golf, is
you know, the separation between the hip rotation and the
and the Sohulder rotation. He's more likely to feel it
at the onset of the passing movement. And so I
I really think he's gonna be fine. But you know
what if he has a setback, you know there's a
(03:58):
point where he can't play with it.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Sure, right, Well, first of all, this is why we
wanted you on because nobody could deliver this the way
you can. First of all, just excellent.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
It's all garbage. But well you know what, Hey, come.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
On, man, theater the mine, you come on.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
It's sounding.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
People are believing this stuff right, let's keep let's keep
it going here. But the first thing I thought of
was what you just said left side versus right side.
And then number two, the fact that Sam actually addressed
the media after practice today made me feel like, Hugh,
this may not be that big a deal. I don't
know if this is a real problem for him. I
(04:36):
don't know if we're hearing from him this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Well, we don't know the personalities of these guys in
these circumstances we're learning about Sam Darnold's personality. I think
there are some quarterbacks if they truly thought they're they're
ninety five percent to go, they would just say, oh,
I'm playing. Nobody's preventing me from playing right. You know,
the idea that he said there's next to no chance.
You know, maybe in his mind he's eighty percent, But but
(05:01):
that's just a massive supposition by me an inference that
that it's probably unwornted. You know, we just stick to
the facts. The facts are that he said that it's
it's close to zero. I believe that to be the case.
I think, yes, adrenaline, there's injections. I think he's gonna
be fine, But you know, today Today was the equivalent
(05:24):
for them of a Friday practice, right, And so that
that that you're talking about red zone, well that it
would have been nice to hit for him to have
had red zone reps today because that's where they've been struggling.
Short yards goal line. No big deal, maybe a little
bit of two minute. I mean, in an ideal world
you're starting, if you know there's talked about gamesmanship, you're
(05:45):
not going to have Drew Locke take one damn rep
for the purposes of gamesmanship that he wouldn't otherwise have taken. Whatever.
The you know, some guys it's like, hey, the backups
don't get anything. Maybe the others maybe get two or
three or five reps whatever, but you're not gonna give
You're not gonna take one rep from Sam Donald to
(06:07):
fulfill some objective of gamesmanship to you know, counterbalance the
Fred Warner and all that stuff. No, this is this
is legit enough that he missed a portion of Friday
practice that he would have otherwise made. And I get it,
it's Thursday, but for them, since they're playing on Saturday,
this is a Friday practice. And so yeah, it's it's
something less than ideal, probably not gonna be a factor
(06:30):
in the game.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Well, real quick for you, let's go, Hugh. I want
to follow up on something you alluded to just a
moment ago, and that is the fact that we're hoping
to play two more games here after this game. And
so how nervous should we be that that a ninety
percent Donald could turn into a seventy percent Donald And
if you win the NFC Championship game, could turn into
a fifty percent Donald in the Super Bowl. And can
a hit aggravate this?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Or is more this is more of a throw potentially
aggravating I would say his throw or abrupt movement. I
mean it could be a scramble. You know, they like
to have him boot booting left, you know where you
fake this the running play to the right, and then
and then he's got to do, you know, contort himself
as he's running to the left. Uh, you know, you
(07:13):
may see those those type of rotational they back off
of that the boot left might uh you know, diminish,
in which case the end from that side can crash
down on the run. I mean there's some layers to this,
but specifically, could it be exacerbated to the point where
it becomes a problem for next weekend. Yeah, yeah, I
(07:34):
could Yeah, I could be and and you know, maybe
misses all of practice. So so there's a lot of
things on the table that we don't like. They're improbable.
I think they're far less than fifty percent chance of happening.
But as I alluded to it the onset of my discussion,
you know, you know, if it were to happen, the
magnitude can approach very significant levels. If you don't have
(07:59):
your starting quarterback of the NFC Championship.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Game, well, there's only one person that the Seahawks need
to make a phone call too, and that person's mister Miagi.
Go get Pat Marieda down there they show. Okay, get
them all wound up and get them all worked one.
All right, man, great, and we'll talk tomorrow. Okay, you're
miling with us again. The big news, Uh you know,
I mean, look, I mean this is the time of
the year where every little thing is just going to
(08:22):
be magnified beyond belief, right, I mean, Sam Donald's got
an oblique injury and the text threads them al with
some guys are blowing up. What the hell's going on?
Your mom's calling you saying we're done. She says, we're done.
Donald's not playing, she declared. She declared on text that
Donald's not playing. It's a good thing your mom doesn't
have a Twitter account, by the way, all right, or
even a radio show, just flipping everybody out. But I mean,
(08:42):
this is the silly season. This is the paralysis by analysis.
What I'm talking about. We just got done talking about
this yesterday on the radio show. The difference between what
we just went through with the Mariners and the baseball playoffs,
what we're going through right now. Can you imagine if
we had to wait a week between every Mariner playoff game,
how just completely maniacal we would be going. I mean,
(09:02):
it would be unbelievable, just breaking down everything to the
end freaking degree. I mean, really, all we're doing right
now is we're just looking at injury updates, and you know,
they added a royal to the injury report. He's not
gonna play. Kyle Shanahan came out today and said Fred
Warner's not gonna play in the game on Saturday. So
forget that. Idea may be available if they win and
they go to the NFC Championship, But I'm ready I'm
ready for Saturday. We are less than fifty hours away,
(09:25):
and I am ready for this freaking thing to go
and get this thing kicked off. Because it's done. It's done.
There's nothing more to be said. I mean, dude, Like,
we just played these guys, right, Like, that's the thing.
If we hadn't played them for a month and a
half and we have a long story, we have a
lot more speculation.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
How's this matchup gonna work? With this matchup, It's like, no,
we just saw this movie.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
We just saw it.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I'm literally Dick and Jackson using my notes from that
Monday after the game. Nothing, nothing's changed. I still have
him right here in front of my face. All right,
here's what we got, Steve Mary, she's gonna join us.
Next segment, we'll get Mooch's thoughts on this injury for
Sam Darnold, all that and more. Mike Homgrin's gonna hop
on as well and hang out with us until about
(10:06):
four twenty or so before cracking. Bruins pregame at four thirty,
face off at five. Coming up on ninety three three
KJRFM
There we go.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Apparently Sam Darnold is looking to bounce back from an
oblique injury. What do you say we get the one
guy on the air that I guarantee you knows what
it's like to have an oblique injury and can explain
what it's like to have an oblique injury as a quarterback.
Our friend Hugh Millon joining us right now in a pinch.
Wanted to call you up, Hugh, because we need information
and we need it fast. Sam Donald oblique injury, questionable
(00:25):
for the game on Saturday. He said he felt a
little something today at practice. Didn't want to push it,
but he did say the odds of him not playing
in the game are close to zero on Saturday. So
you tell me how concerned you are about this latest
news coming out of the vMac.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Well, not too much from a probability standpoint, but the
degree that we to which we should be concerned about
any unwanted event is the product of two factors, the
probability times of magnitude. I can tell you that he's
probably fine, But if he's not fine, and you're looking
at an indifferent period with Drew Locke, that would seemingly
(01:02):
be a large magnitude. I I I'm sure he's gonna
be fine. You're talking about a muscle that has uh.
You know, there's a large area there, large surface areas
away from the joints. You have predictable pain generators that
that that to me is ripe for an injection lytacane
(01:23):
or marcane or whatever it is that they use to
numb that. I'm sure he'll get a numb and and
he'll be good to go. That's the vast probability. But
I can't say that with one hundred sense certainty. There
may be a tweak there that just prevents him from going.
But I think we're fine.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
And when you think about you know, you stick the
ldacane as well, and you've got the the emotion of
the day, right, you've got your own endorphins that are
flowing through your body that are not flowing through your
body on a Thursday afternoon.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Right, unquestionably, Yeah, you can fight through a lot in
that regard that that that should be known as well, dick.
And so I think you're fine. You know, the left side,
he's the right handed quarterback. Obviously, you know it's a
rotational uh exercise, and and and there's a kinetic chain
to the revolution. Usually you want you know you're going
(02:12):
to have. It's like anybody who swing a golf club
can kind of relate to what's going on here. I mean,
you got your back swing that that is a strain
on your left side, and then as you swing your
golf club and your left side is going to be
part of the deceleration. But if if there was going
to be a yank and a real stretch, it would
(02:34):
be off the right side at the end the fall
through after the ball is gone. But but I think
either way, you know, I'm sitting there and saying, well,
what I would rather play with a left strained oblique
or right strained oblique depends on where it is what
from from a left standpoint, any discomfort that he has
he's going to feel before the ball goes you'd say, well,
(02:56):
that's we'd rather have it be uncomfortable after the ball goes. No,
not necessarily, because your mind, if it knows it's going
to feel discomfort, that can jack you up. It's like
a Hitchcock movie, you know, like he never wanted to
show the villain's face because he says, well, there the
fear of the unknown, and the and the and the mind.
(03:17):
The theater of the mind is stronger. Well, if if
you have a surge after you've let the ball go,
well your I promise you your brain knows that you're
gonna feel that after the ball's gone, and then all
of a sudden it causes it can cause your mechanics
to to uh, to get gummed up. And so I
would say he's he's more likely to feel it from
(03:38):
the left side as he stretches, and there's a there's
kind of what's called the X factor in golf, is
you know, the separation between the hip rotation and the
and the Sohulder rotation. He's more likely to feel it
at the onset of the passing movement. And so I
I really think he's gonna be fine. But you know
what if he has a setback, you know there's a
(03:58):
point where he can't play with it.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Sure, right, Well, first of all, this is why we
wanted you on because nobody could deliver this the way
you can. First of all, just excellent.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
It's all garbage. But well you know what, Hey, come.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
On, man, theater the mine, you come on.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
It's sounding.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
People are believing this stuff right, let's keep let's keep
it going here. But the first thing I thought of
was what you just said left side versus right side.
And then number two, the fact that Sam actually addressed
the media after practice today made me feel like, Hugh,
this may not be that big a deal. I don't
know if this is a real problem for him. I
(04:36):
don't know if we're hearing from him this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Well, we don't know the personalities of these guys in
these circumstances we're learning about Sam Darnold's personality. I think
there are some quarterbacks if they truly thought they're they're
ninety five percent to go, they would just say, oh,
I'm playing. Nobody's preventing me from playing right. You know,
the idea that he said there's next to no chance.
You know, maybe in his mind he's eighty percent, But but
(05:01):
that's just a massive supposition by me an inference that
that it's probably unwornted. You know, we just stick to
the facts. The facts are that he said that it's
it's close to zero. I believe that to be the case.
I think, yes, adrenaline, there's injections. I think he's gonna
be fine, But you know, today Today was the equivalent
(05:24):
for them of a Friday practice, right, And so that
that that you're talking about red zone, well that it
would have been nice to hit for him to have
had red zone reps today because that's where they've been struggling.
Short yards goal line. No big deal, maybe a little
bit of two minute. I mean, in an ideal world
you're starting, if you know there's talked about gamesmanship, you're
(05:45):
not going to have Drew Locke take one damn rep
for the purposes of gamesmanship that he wouldn't otherwise have taken. Whatever.
The you know, some guys it's like, hey, the backups
don't get anything. Maybe the others maybe get two or
three or five reps whatever, but you're not gonna give
You're not gonna take one rep from Sam Donald to
(06:07):
fulfill some objective of gamesmanship to you know, counterbalance the
Fred Warner and all that stuff. No, this is this
is legit enough that he missed a portion of Friday
practice that he would have otherwise made. And I get it,
it's Thursday, but for them, since they're playing on Saturday,
this is a Friday practice. And so yeah, it's it's
something less than ideal, probably not gonna be a factor
(06:30):
in the game.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Well, real quick for you, let's go, Hugh. I want
to follow up on something you alluded to just a
moment ago, and that is the fact that we're hoping
to play two more games here after this game. And
so how nervous should we be that that a ninety
percent Donald could turn into a seventy percent Donald And
if you win the NFC Championship game, could turn into
a fifty percent Donald in the Super Bowl. And can
a hit aggravate this?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Or is more this is more of a throw potentially
aggravating I would say his throw or abrupt movement. I
mean it could be a scramble. You know, they like
to have him boot booting left, you know where you
fake this the running play to the right, and then
and then he's got to do, you know, contort himself
as he's running to the left. Uh, you know, you
(07:13):
may see those those type of rotational they back off
of that the boot left might uh you know, diminish,
in which case the end from that side can crash
down on the run. I mean there's some layers to this,
but specifically, could it be exacerbated to the point where
it becomes a problem for next weekend. Yeah, yeah, I
(07:34):
could Yeah, I could be and and you know, maybe
misses all of practice. So so there's a lot of
things on the table that we don't like. They're improbable.
I think they're far less than fifty percent chance of happening.
But as I alluded to it the onset of my discussion,
you know, you know, if it were to happen, the
magnitude can approach very significant levels. If you don't have
(07:59):
your starting quarterback of the NFC Championship.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Game, well, there's only one person that the Seahawks need
to make a phone call too, and that person's mister Miagi.
Go get Pat Marieda down there they show. Okay, get
them all wound up and get them all worked one.
All right, man, great, and we'll talk tomorrow. Okay, you're
miling with us again. The big news, Uh you know,
I mean, look, I mean this is the time of
the year where every little thing is just going to
(08:22):
be magnified beyond belief, right, I mean, Sam Donald's got
an oblique injury and the text threads them al with
some guys are blowing up. What the hell's going on?
Your mom's calling you saying we're done. She says, we're done.
Donald's not playing, she declared. She declared on text that
Donald's not playing. It's a good thing your mom doesn't
have a Twitter account, by the way, all right, or
even a radio show, just flipping everybody out. But I mean,
(08:42):
this is the silly season. This is the paralysis by analysis.
What I'm talking about. We just got done talking about
this yesterday on the radio show. The difference between what
we just went through with the Mariners and the baseball playoffs,
what we're going through right now. Can you imagine if
we had to wait a week between every Mariner playoff game,
how just completely maniacal we would be going. I mean,
(09:02):
it would be unbelievable, just breaking down everything to the
end freaking degree. I mean, really, all we're doing right
now is we're just looking at injury updates, and you know,
they added a royal to the injury report. He's not
gonna play. Kyle Shanahan came out today and said Fred
Warner's not gonna play in the game on Saturday. So
forget that. Idea may be available if they win and
they go to the NFC Championship, But I'm ready I'm
ready for Saturday. We are less than fifty hours away,
(09:25):
and I am ready for this freaking thing to go
and get this thing kicked off. Because it's done. It's done.
There's nothing more to be said. I mean, dude, Like,
we just played these guys, right, Like, that's the thing.
If we hadn't played them for a month and a
half and we have a long story, we have a
lot more speculation.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
How's this matchup gonna work? With this matchup, It's like, no,
we just saw this movie.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
We just saw it.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I'm literally Dick and Jackson using my notes from that
Monday after the game. Nothing, nothing's changed. I still have
him right here in front of my face. All right,
here's what we got, Steve Mary, she's gonna join us.
Next segment, we'll get Mooch's thoughts on this injury for
Sam Darnold, all that and more. Mike Homgrin's gonna hop
on as well and hang out with us until about
(10:06):
four twenty or so before cracking. Bruins pregame at four thirty,
face off at five. Coming up on ninety three three
KJRFM
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