What is known for certain is that Lions punter Sam Martin made his season debut last Sunday after missing the first six games of the season with an ankle injury.
What remains murky is how Martin suffered the injury, but the Detroit News reported Friday that multiple sources said the injury involved a conch shell.
Yes, the big seashell commonly found on beaches, not especially dangerous under normal circumstances.
Martin reportedly suffered the injury in July while vacationing in the Bahamas, and it cost him all of training camp and the preseason, plus those six regular-season games.
It's likely Martin would be the first NFL player ever injured by a conch shell. Thing is, no one can say for sure, because Martin won't reveal exactly how it happened.
Monday, he put a bunch of rumors to rest by explaining how the injury did not happen.
“It was not skateboarding, it wasn’t cliff diving, it had nothing to do with my dog, no staircases,” Martin said (via the Detroit News). “I read them all. I read all the stories guys, and you guys were about 0-10.
“All you need to know is it’s not what everyone thinks. I wasn’t doing anything stupid. It was a freak accident. It’s not even worth the story. It was just a freak accident. It could have happened to anyone, any day, anywhere.”
Maybe Martin is afraid to tell the truth, worried he'll be forever known as "That guy who got injured by a conch shell." Maybe he's worried that near the end of his career, people will joke he is a "shell of his former self."
But on the all-time list of bizarre sports injuries, a conch shell wouldn't even crack the top 10:
Who could forget Blue Jays outfielder Glenallen Hill, who injured himself crashing into a glass table while running away from spiders in a nightmare?
Tigers reliever Joel Zumaya missed time during the 2006 ALCS because of wrist inflammation he got from playing too much of the video game "Guitar Hero."
Former Rockies player Clint Barmes once injured himself trying to carry a bag of venison down stairs.
A conch-related injury might not even be the most bizarre injury ever suffered by a punter. That distinction belongs to former Jaguars punter Chris Hanson. Recall that then Jags-coach Jack Del Rio motivated his 2003 team by keeping an axe in the locker room, telling them to "Keep chopping wood." Hanson picked up the axe and chopped himself in the leg, causing him to miss 11 games.
And speaking of kickers, Cardinals kicker Bill Gramatica once celebrated a made field goal by leaping up, landing awkwardly and tearing his ACL.
Conch shell rumors aside, here's why you should know Martin: He averaged a career-high 48.5 yards per punt in 2016, and even more impressive, his 44.2 net yards per punt average was the third-best mark since the NFL began keeping that statistic in 1976.