Jolly Rancher Sidelines Dallas Cowboy Safety Barry Church

A Jolly Rancher forced a Dallas Cowboys footballer to miss a day of training camp after he was the victim of a bizarre injury.

Barry Church, who is a strong safety for the side, was eating a Jolly Rancher when he chipped a tooth on the candy. This occurred a week before practice was set to begin, but having felt pain in his tooth on and off for the past seven days, he woke up on Monday morning and was in uncontrollable pain.

Church, who has been a professional for four years, missed a walkthrough session as well as a full practice as he endured a root canal. However, he returned on Tuesday.

Nick Eatman, who works for the official Dallas Cowboys website, wrote on Twitter, “Barry Church missed practice because of a cherry jolly rancher… Seriously… Chipped tooth and needed root canal… that’s a first.”

This lead one of his followers, Rob Phillips, to respond, “@nickeatman “Church – Doubtful (Gobstopper).”

Church admitted that on his return to the training field he “caught a couple of zingers” from players and members of the coaching staff, whilst he isn’t happy that he now has to stay away from sweets for the foreseeable future. Church then added that when he returns to candy, he’ll “stick to the soft stuff.”

Church missed 13 weeks of last season because of a torn Achilles tendon, which he received in the third game of the campaign, when the Cowboys took on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Up until that point of the year, Church had been one of the Cowboys best defensive players, having played 46 of 60 possible defensive snaps.

Earlier this week, Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman, Josh Brent, announced his retirement from the game, because he faces charges of the intoxicated manslaughter of fellow Cowboys squad member, Jerry Brown.

[Image via Mene Tekel/Wikimedia]