Want a straight answer about an injury in the NFL? Good luck.

You might get it as a history lesson, weeks, months or even years after a player is all healed.

Writes David Boclair of the Nashville City Paper in this piece about injuries and honesty in the NFL:

“Everything — from comments by coaches and players, to the injury report issued by the league office each week during the regular season, to the way teams use the information in their preparation — is riddled with half-truths and falsehoods.”

It’s a piece that really offers insight into Mike Munchak, who talks of answering injury questions as a Hall of Fame player and a coach.

“I tell you what I feel like you can handle. How many times can you say the same thing? ‘I’m working. I’m rehabbing. I’m doing everything I can. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow.’ It’s pretty much true. It’s a boring answer, but that’s pretty much how it is. … It’s about being careful to say as close to what you know as you can.”

And here’s the sort of comment from Matt Hasselbeck that makes him as good a reporter resource as any quarterback in the league in recent memory.

On his long tenure as the starter in Seattle, when he missed only two games due to injury.

“Usually, I would get directions from the head coach on what he wanted me to say. And then maybe from the trainers what I was going to say. And then from the PR guy what I was going to say. …

“It’s very uncomfortable. It’s awkward. It’s hard to do. It’s a drain. … In 2008, I hurt my back, and I knew I was out for a while. But I had to sort of do the dance like, ‘Well maybe I can come back next week.’ Technically, I could have come back … maybe. But I knew in my heart that it wasn’t going to happen.”

Read Boclair’s piece to learn how back spasms are not always just back spasms.