Michael Koenen has some pretty rotten luck

After years of mostly not living up to his contract, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers finally cut Michael Koenen in preseason of last year. At the time, this was no surprise: he hadn't been good in preseason, he hadn't been good for years, and he was way too expensive. He was essentially a below-average punter who was also good on kickoffs.

A month after he was cut, he blamed some tainted sports water that sapped his strength. Now, he's repeating that accusation, but he also contracted C. Difficile this year, yet another illness. Alex Marvez of Fox Sports gives us some rather...graphic details.

"C. diff makes you go to the bathroom with diarrhea 15, 16 times a day," Koenen said Wednesday in a telephone interview from his home in northwest Washington. "It's almost uncontrollable. You have to stay at home and there's not much you can do. You spend a lot of time puking and trying to get rid of stuff in your body."

Well, okay, I can see how that would kill your performance. Supposedly, though, Koenen is close to resuming his career. Missing only one year after two serious injuries seems pretty miraculous.

I wish Koenen a lot of luck coming back from these illnesses. They're not easy to overcome as a regular person, and it's even more difficult to get back to a point where you can come back and continue a career as a professional athlete.