On today’s episode we’re focusing on mindset skills, emotional regulation and mental toughness and feel that orthopedic surgery with Dr. Winston Gwathmey, an orthopedic surgeon at UVA. We start off our discussion today with an article from the September 2022 issue of the Journal of Surgical Research titled “Emotional Regulation in Surgery: Fostering Well-Being, Performance, and Leadership.” This article reviews the critical role of emotional regulation as a trainable cognitive skill tha...

2025 has been a year of real growth for our show! We’ve seen our listenership expand, our community of colleagues grow, and our impact reach more clinicians, athletes and sports medicine professionals than ever before. That only happens because of you—our listeners—who show up every week curious, engaged, and committed to elevating care in sports medicine. This year also brought a milestone we’re incredibly proud of: The Sports Docs Podcast has been nominated for Best Clinical Education Podca...

Welcome to Overtime with the Sports Docs. On each of these mini episodes, Catherine and I chat about a new article or new surgical technique in the field of sports medicine. We’ll give you our quick take on the most recent data and how this data will impact our practice. Today, we’re breaking down a new study looking at the Hip–Return to Sport after Injury score, or Hip-RSI, and whether it can help us evaluate psychological readiness to return to sport after surgical repair of a proxima...

Today we’re breaking down a common but sometimes career-altering knee injury in professional football – the meniscus tear. We’ll cover how often these happen in the NFL, how players present, what treatment choices look like, timelines for returning to play, and critically – how meniscal injury affects performance and career length But first, a quick refresher: The menisci are two C-shaped fibrocartilage discs in each knee (medial and lateral) that help distribute load, absorb shock, and stabi...

On each of these mini episodes, Catherine and I chat about a new article or new surgical technique in the field of sports medicine. We’ll give you our quick take on the most recent data and how this data will impact our practice. Today, we’re discussing a brand-new paper hot off the press titled: “Predictors of Tunnel Widening After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction” published in the November 2025 issue of AJSM. This study digs into why femoral and tibial tunnels enlarge after A...

Our conversation picks back up with an article titled “Patient Outcomes and Return to Play After Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair in Overhead Athletes.” This systematic review, published in the January 2023 issue of JOT, analyzed 20 studies comprising 692 patients with an average follow-up of 40 months. The authors found that arthroscopic cuff repair led to significant improvements in patient reported outcomes as well as improved shoulder elevation. Overall, 75% of athletes return...

On today’s episode we’re focusing on the thrower’s shoulder with Dr. Sara Edwards, an orthopedic sports medicine and shoulder surgeon at UCSF. We have some great articles for you that contribute well to our conversation on different shoulder pathology in the overhead throwing athlete. We start off our discussion today with a review article from the April 2023 issue of the yellow journal titled “Surgical Treatment of Superior Labral / Biceps Pathology in the Overhead Thrower.” The autho...

Welcome to another episode of Game Plan! As you might remember from our episode on ACL graft choices, these Game Plan episodes are specifically designed for patients – to hopefully answer some of the questions you have about the most common sports medicine conditions and surgical treatments. We’re continuing with our favorite topic today – ACL tears – but today’s episode is going to focus on risk factors for ACL tears. Specifically, which of these risk factors can we modify to l...

Welcome to Overtime with the Sports Docs. Today, we’re talking about Cyclops Syndrome after ACL reconstruction surgery. We review an article published in this month’s issue of AJSM titled “Risk Profile for Cyclops Syndrome Necessitating Reoperation After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction.” But first, let’s back up a bit and discuss the basics, starting with what Cyclops Syndrome is.

Welcome to GamePlan with the Sports Docs. On each of these mini episodes, we chat about a new article or new surgical technique in the field of sports medicine. We’ll give you our quick take on the most recent data and how this data will be impacting our practice. Today, we’re talking about hamstring injuries in the NFL. And if your fantasy team is anything like my fantasy team, it currently looks like an infirmary. So, you’ll probably want to listen in to this episode. Now, we’ve covered ham...

Today, we’re heading back to the NFL to discuss a surprisingly serious injury – turf toe. In Week 2 of the 2025 NFL season, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was sacked and sustained left great toe injury. This was ultimately diagnosed as a grade 3 turf toe injury requiring surgery. Burrow was placed on injured reserved and elected to undergo surgical repair. While the surgery reportedly went well, timing for return is uncertain, though initial estimates are around 3 month...

We get lots of questions from our patients and our listeners each week. And they’re great questions, so rather than responding individually we thought we’d do these mini episodes where highlight some of the best questions and our responses, with some literature to back it up. Today we will be tackling: “What are the most studied and most effective supplements currently for sports medicine patients — both for performance and for injury recovery?” “What’s the current evidence and your vie...

Today, we’re diving into one of the most serious injuries in American football, and that is a knee dislocation. Dolphins star wide receiver Tyreek Hill recently suffered a devastating knee injury in the Monday Night Football game versus the Jets. He dislocated his knee resulting in multiple torn ligaments, including his ACL. Tyreek was taken to the hospital directly from the game for further evaluation and ended up undergoing urgent surgery for ligament reconstruction and repair. The te...

Welcome to another episode of Game Plan! These Game Plan episodes are specifically designed for patients – to hopefully answer some of the questions you have about the most common sports medicine conditions and surgical treatments. But today’s episode is a little different and we’re excited about it! Today, we’re focusing on common injuries in the NFL and how these injuries impact time missed and player performance once athletes ultimately return to play. This is something that each NFL team ...

In this episode, we’re going to continue our discussion with Dr. Travis Matheney and focus on surgical treatment options for borderline hip dysplasia. Our conversation picks back up with a review article published in the December 2024 issue of Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine titled “Borderline Hip Dysplasia - Best Treated with Hip Arthroscopy or Periacetabular Osteotomy?” Dr. Andrea Spiker and colleagues summarized the current research comparing isolated hip arthroscopy to periace...

On today’s episode we’re focusing on the management of borderline hip dysplasia with Dr. Travis Matheney, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Boston Children's Hospital. We have some great articles for you that contribute well to our conversation on the treatment options for borderline hip dysplasia. We’ll start off our discussion today with an article titled “Periacetabular Osteotomy Improves Pain and Function in Patients With Lateral Center-edge Angle Between 18° and 25°, but Are These ...

Our conversation picks back up with an article published just last month in AJSM titled “Player Tracking Metrics to Predict Risk of ACL Injuries During Change-of-Direction Scenarios in the NFL.” The authors analyzed 216 ACL injuries that occurred in the NFL from 2018–2022 to determine how player tracking data could help predict injury risk, particularly during change-of-direction or “CoD” plays. They found that nearly half of ACL injuries occurred during CoD scenarios, most often involving hi...

On today’s episode we’re focusing on wearable technology for athlete performance, recovery and injury prevention with Dr. Jacob Calcei, an orthopedic surgeon at University Hospitals in Cleveland and team physician for the Cleveland Browns. We’ll start off our discussion today with an article titled “Wearable Performance Devices in Sports Medicine” from the January 2016 issue of Sports Health. The authors review the rapid rise of wearable sensor technologies in athletics, highlighting th...

Today’s episode is going to focus on the management of rotator cuff retears — including tips and tricks for successful revision repair and augmentation options. We are joined today by two outstanding guests! Dr. Brian Waterman is a Professor of orthopedic surgery at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Chief of Sports Medicine & Shoulder Surgery at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and Director of the Sports Medicine & Shoulder Surgery Fellowship. He is on the editorial b...

Pitch, please: Managing UCL Injuries in Throwing Athletes Dr. Michael Banffy and Dr. Christopher Camp Today’s episode is going to focus on the management of UCL injuries in throwing athletes. We are joined today by two outstanding guests! Dr. Michael Banffy is a Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Chief of Orthopedic Sports Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, as well as Director of the Orthopedic Sports Medicine Fellowship at Kerlan-Jobe. He is a team physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los...