Doug Martin Suffered Setback, Haters Unite

Most people expected Pro Bowl running back Doug Martin to return this week against the 49ers. Unfortunately he suffered a setback leaving no timetable for his return.

Buccaneers coaches, players, and fans have been chomping at the bit to see last season’s second leading rusher return to action after suffering an injury to his hamstring in week two against the Arizona Cardinals. It was a bit disheartening when Dirk Koetter broke the news on Doug Martin Wednesday afternoon;

"“He has, yup. Doug, unfortunately, did suffer a setback a week ago Sunday and we’ll just have to see when he can make it back. There’s no timetable on that right now, again, that’s not my department. There will be an injury report, just like [the reporter] said there would be, but Doug did suffer a little setback. And just that whole thing on injures, nobody’s at fault when somebody gets hurt. Injuries are the worst part of this game on all teams. Just look around the league. A lot of teams have injuries and we don’t like it, but trust me, no one feels worse about it than the player. The player feels bad and injuries make it tough on our team, but we can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we’ve got to keep rolling.”"

Of course, that opened the floodgates for the Doug Martin hater crowd to tee off on the running back’s injury history and lack of production outside his rookie season and 2015;

These are just some of the ones we can actually include. You wouldn’t believe the number of tweets that mention – or tag him – telling him to “you-know-what” off or cursing him out. Whether they were Buccaneers fans or people angry over something as silly as fantasy football, the crude, disrespectful hatred towards him is unwarranted and unjustifiable.

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Look, I love to play fantasy football and I’ve been hit by the injury bug as well. I’ve also drafted guys that just haven’t performed up to expectations. But never once have I cursed one out on social media because their injury was affecting my make believe football team. Never once have I told an injured player to “kill himself” or “refund that money he stole” because I was upset they weren’t playing.

Get a freaking life, people.

No one is more upset about Doug Martin not playing than Doug Martin. No one is more upset about Doug Martin being injured than Doug Martin. We all know full well this team is better with Martin on the field. The run game has been garbage with him gone. You don’t rush for 1,400 yards by accident.

Doug Martin is a hell of a running back and a class act. To see people attack him like this over an injury he has absolutely no control over is asinine. It’s not like he was partying and fell down the stairs because he was too drunk to walk. He got hurt after the best blocker on this team left the game against the Cardinals, he ran the ball, then got lit up like a Christmas tree.

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If I included your tweet in this, I hope you’re ashamed of yourself. Go find some class. As for the rest of us, hopefully Doug Martin’s setback isn’t too major and we’ll see him sooner than later.