Bengals Rookie Defensive Tackle Geno Atkins Has Sickle Cell Trait

by Josh Kirkendall on May 2, 2010 4:52 PM EDT in Analysis

According to the Associated Press' Joe McKay, Bengals defensive tackle Geno Atkins was born with sickle cell trait. His father, Gene Atkins Sr., a ten-year safety with the New Orleans Saints and Miami Dolphins, was affected by the same thing -- and that didn't stop him from recording 25 career interceptions, including 198 return yards in 1991 that led the NFL.

After extensive research into learning about sickle cell trait (aka, Wiki search), "Sickle cell trait (or sicklemia) describes a condition in which a person has one abnormal allele of the hemoglobin beta gene (is heterozygous), but does not display the severe symptoms of sickle cell disease that occur in a person who has two copies of that allele (is homozygous)."

One of several complications that may arise include "reports of pulmonary venous thromboembolism" during prolonged air flights."

The affliction made headlines last year when it was learned that Steelers defensive back Ryan Clark had to sit out in a game at Denver. Santonio Holmes is known to have the same thing.

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I hope for Geno's sake we never hear of this again

That way it would be a NON issue, but with what did happen to Clark last year it is a bit of a concern. I think Geno has a lot of upside as a pass rush DT that can get in the rotation on passing downs. He is extremely quick off the ball. He seems to have gotten even quicker from college till now, when I watched the video’s of rookie camp. I posted that on another post here at Cincy Jungle then read how Zimmer was even impressed with his quickness and even said he was quicker than he thought as well. Anyway, hopefully we are talking about Geno for this type of reason and not sickle cell trait.

by C1ncy4Life on May 3, 2010 7:57 AM EDT reply actions