One of the more unfortunate aspects of being an elite professional athlete with a well-known injury history is just how much you have to explain your ailments when you’d much rather not.
Sometimes you just want to recover without the world knowing you did something silly, embarrassing or just plain aggravating.
Dustin Johnson has injured his back so many times, in so many strange ways, throughout his career that he knows each time the injury acts up, he’s going to have to talk about it. And sometimes, like on Wednesday at the PGA Championship, there’s just no good way to explain the cause without drawing nervous laughs from the audience.
DJ with an amusing explanation for his back injury earlier this year pic.twitter.com/oQVcQMPza1
— Brendan Porath (@BrendanPorath) May 17, 2023
Here Johnson is asked about his back injury in February. The reporter wonders if it resulted from swinging a golf club or picking up one of his two kids. The former No. 1 golfer in the world smirked, turned away and explained it came from picking up a “bigger kid”. You can feel the room collectively blush as the reporter loses his train of thought.
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Honesty is certainly the best policy, but this is one of those times when no one would’ve blamed Johnson for a little white lie.