Mike Williams out for season? (rumor)

That's a damn shame. Guy his worked his ass off (literally) to make a comeback. Tough loss for him and the team. This is Rinehart's chance to really step it up and take over that position now

Just to be clear, "blood clots" near heart doesn't make much sense. But if true, it may mean he'd need blood thinners, which would make playing football again less likely.

There are a couple of possibilities:
1) Blood clot in leg/lung (deep venous thrombosis or DVT) - usually in immobile people or with recent surgery.
2) Blood clot in heart from an irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation).
3) Heart tumor (myxoma) - usually need surgery, ppl do fine.
4) Problem/clot on heart valve - unusual, unlikely.
5) Something completely different..

Can't think of anything else that would make sense in his case. Either way, hope it's just a rumor and he's okay.

I believe that blood clots near the heart increase the risk of a heart attack and/or a stroke

Damn that doesn't sound good. This isn't good for our o-line depth. Before if a tackle got hurt, Williams could play guard and Hicks could move out to tackle. Now it looks like we might be back to Heyer as the the top backup tackle and like Chad Rinehart as the top backup guard.

your right "this isn't good" but hicks could still move out to tackle and rinehart could fill the guard spot. they don't have to bring heyer in.

Even before this it was time for guys to step up but after this it's TIME FOR GUYS TO STEP UP!.

What a shame for Big Mike. He worked so hard to get back and then his body betrayed him.

Is it me our does our OL in recent years seem cursed by health problems, both normal and exceptional?

That's a damn shame. Guy his worked his ass off (literally) to make a comeback. Tough loss for him and the team. This is Rinehart's chance to really step it up and take over that position now

Yeah, this sucks. I actually expect Hicks to be the one to start now that we traded for Brown...but wow, that's a big loss.

On a positive note, a lot of times doctors will miss stuff like this, and its good that they caught it now. A lot of situations such as this turn out to be very tragic. But man, that's a big loss.

i was for Rinehart before this. its all about him now- make or break

I was definitely a Big Mike supporter. At this point I just hope the doctors and he can keep it from being serious.

Line wise, I think this isn't as big a deal. Just means the competition will be that much more aggressive.

That's a serious issue for a football player, I've been there. Hope big Mike can recover, not so much for his football career but just his overall health. I have considered him a true success story after what he went through to get back on track.

*Grimace* Here we go again... The season hasn't even started yet and we are off on the same foot. Losing starting O-lineman, plugging in stop-gaps. I just hope over the next few years we continue to focus on bringing in young top tier o-lineman.
I do understand that this is a medical condition, not an injury, but I do wonder if being 30 and grossly over weight for years didn't bring about this condition. It's almost a metaphor for the problems on our O-line year in and out. Neglect and age will never add up to success, or the ability to remain healthy in the trenches in the NFL.
Get well soon BMW.