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Texans RB Arian Foster reportedly needs season-ending back surgery
Arian Foster may very well be out for the rest of the 2013 season. (Bob Levey/Getty Images)
In mid-October, it was announced that Houston Texans running back Arian Foster was establishing an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of a stock valued on the value and performance of his brand. According to two reports, that stock will bottom out before it gets rolling, at least through the 2013 season.
On Sunday, Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reported that Foster will need season-ending surgery to repair a lumbar spine issue. Mike Garafolo of Fox Sports confirmed the report. Foster had not played since Oct. 20, when he suffered a hamstring injury against the Kansas City Chiefs. According to Rapoport, the lumbar spine issue Foster developed had him seeing multiple specialists for any opinion without the injured reserve list as an option. Foster also had a back injury in the preseason. Ben Tate, Foster's longtime backup, will become the main man.
“I would say where we’re at in the week, I felt good about what he did today," Texans head coach Gary Kubiak said of Foster's progress on Oct. 30. "We’ve got to see where we’re at tomorrow. We had him set up to take so many reps. He took all of them. He went through the whole practice. We’ll see how he comes out tomorrow. We’ve got a little extra time on our hands because we do play Sunday night. At least we’ve taken some positive steps here with both of those [running backs] in the last two days."
Foster leads the team with 542 rushing yards on 121 carries. However, he had just one rushing touchdown in 2013 after scoring 15 in 2012.
SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.