Fingers crossed

When you want something badly, the tiniest scrap of good news can make you jump to a hasty conclusion.

I think this happened last week with comments made by general manager Martin Mayhew regarding running back Jahvid Best.

Everybody wants Best to be healthy and ready to play this season. Nobody wants to see concussions end such a promising career so soon. So when Mayhew offered a shred of optimism, we all jumped on it.

“He’s been doing everything in the off-season program, and we expect he’ll be cleared sometime probably in June,” Mayhew said in an interview on WJR. “We look forward to having him on the field.”

Hope is the key word there. The Lions hope he can compete at minicamp June 12-14. But the reality is, he hasn’t been cleared for contact and he won’t even take the concussion tests until early June.

So we hope — we don’t know.

“Those doctors felt like it just made sense to do that in June,” Mayhew said. “It gives him the most time. We are not doing anything that involves any contact, and he’s been cleared to do everything that we’re doing right now (conditioning).”

We all know by now that head trauma is no joke. There isn’t a doctor or team official that is going to risk putting Best back on a football field until they are as certain as they can be that he’s ready. And with brain injuries, there are so few certainties.

So, keep the fingers crossed, wish for the best but don’t assume anything.