Every Sunday, you can bet a player is going to get hurt. It is a way of life in the NFL, and the players who have just blown their knees, or broken bones, head to one place come Monday: the injured reserve list.

I’ve been there. I was the guy staring up into the lights, at FedEx Field of all places, with my knee ligaments, once strong and fast, now resembling a piece of chewed-up salami. Most players know when they do it; almost all of them know their seasons are over. You might get one last cart ride off the field, maybe wave to the adoring fans, but after that, you are gone. You don’t exist anymore. You are a ghost.

At first glance, it sounds cool. Sleep in; drink beer every night, play Madden on Xbox until your thumbs go numb, make plans to go home for the holidays, and best of all, collect that weekly paycheck.

That lasts about a week, and then reality sets in.

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After you’ve played 20 straight games of Madden, watched all your DVD’s twice, that injury really starts to hurt. Unfortunately, it doesn’t heal itself. Rehab in the NFL is long, tiresome, emotional, and more physically exhausting than a ballgame. Some days I would have rather done Gregg Williams’ “Up-Downs,” than try to build up the strength up in my surgically-repaired knee. Some days I felt like walking out of that training room and never looking back. It was the same thing, over and over again — for eight months. Still sound cool?

No, it doesn’t.

You are still a member of the team, kind of. You don’t attend meetings or games; you limp around on crutches while your teammates prepare for practice. You don’t have that same camaraderie, and you definitely don’t have the same aura about you in the locker room. Worse, you don’t have your job. While you are heading home to catch PTI, someone else is filling your spot. Forget regaining your starting job next season; you better start thinking about just making the team.

As of now, you don’t matter.

Life on the IR is as low as it gets, and happens in a blink of an eye. One minute you are making plays; the next minute you are looking for another job, hoping for a couple more seasons.

Former Redskins safety Matt Bowen, a seven-year NFL veteran, contributes a weekly column to The Examiner during the NFL season.