SEC players suffered some pretty devastating injuries this season.

While I never missed a game due to an injury, I did suffer a few.

Playing hurt is part of football. Playing injured is a whole different animal.

Injuries vary in severity, but football is a tough damn sport. Coaches and fans think that these players should play with injuries and give up their body and if they don’t then they are considered soft or selfish, which upsets me. If a player says he can’t go, which is very rare, then perhaps they should listen.

There are some “soft” players out there, but that number is negligible. These guys are very tough individuals, but when they say they can’t go, they can’t.

As a player, I was knocked around and I can recall the hardest hit I ever took. We were playing then-No. 4 Ole Miss in Williams-Brice Stadium. I ran a quarterback sneak near the goal line when I got drilled in the ribs.

It hurt like hell. I came out a few plays and the staff did some checks to see if everything was OK. I told them I was good to go. There was absolutely no way in hell I was going to come out of that game.

The medical staff put a rib protector around me and I went right back in the game. It was one of the biggest wins in South Carolina history. I can’t even begin to describe the pain that I had to deal with for that following week. It was brutal, but definitely worth it.

More recently, we saw Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace go down with an ankle injury. We saw Brandon Allen of Arkansas with all sorts of injuries. We saw Amari Cooper of Alabama go down against Western Carolina. All three of these players came out and played, and played well, the following week agains their rival schools.

Clemson QB DeShaun Watson played against South Carolina with a torn ACL and played well. I think the Gamecocks would’ve won if he didn’t play. These guys are tough SOBs and that’s football. Sometimes you have to suck it up and play injured, if you can.

When people criticize these players for playing with an injury, or not playing, they need to take a step back. The medical staff has to clear the player first and foremost, then it becomes the player’s decision.

There’s a difference between hurt and injured. A player can and should always play hurt. He has that obligation to his teammates, his coaches, the fans and the school to play. With injuries, though, it’s a judgment call, one that’s much harder to make from the outside looking in.