Dion Sims has appeared on every Chicago Bears injury report and has missed each practice since the end of the bye week due to what is simply being referred to as “illness.”
Sims appeared on the injury report as one of three players who did not practice on Thursday, and once again “illness” was cited as a reason. On Wednesday, Head Coach John Fox said Sims was working out with the team even though he was missing practice. That could have been taken as a sign that Sims was taking a progress in the right direction. He was in the building and working out, how much longer could this illness impact Sims’ playing time?
That question has still yet to be answered by Fox, who had this exchange with Chicago Tribune reporter Brad Biggs when pressed on the topic of Sims’ injury/illness/health status:
Exchange between @BradBiggs and John Fox today about Dion Simms, who hasn’t practiced in over two weeks because of an illness: pic.twitter.com/C8P4RshqDZ
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) November 16, 2017
When declining to provide an update on Sims’ health status, Fox made a vague reference to laws that would prevent him from sharing that kind of information. Fox could be citing HIPAA laws designed to keep injury information private. However, as we learned with the Jason Pierre-Paul case from a few years ago, HIPAA laws apply only to health-care providers.
As it stands, I’m not sure whether Fox is unprepared regarding the situation, simply being spiteful for the fun of it or just plain ol’ ornery because that’s how football coaches can be at times. In any case, the coach is doing Sims no favors with his publicly combative statements regarding the player’s health.