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Lions punter Sam Martin had to miss six weeks of the NFL regular season (after missing all of training camp) due to an injury that had fans puzzled. It was only listed as a foot injury, and Martin called it a "freak accident" upon his return. According to Justin Rogers of The Detroit News, however, Martin had good reason to be clandestine about what happened.

Rogers says that Martin was vacationing in the Bahamas, and either a.) stepped on a conch shell or b.) dropped it on his foot. Conch shells have highly irregular, angular shapes, so it stands to reason that stepping on one would be like stepping on a Lego in terms of pain. The injury put Martin on the non-football injury list, and the rest is embarrassing history.

Detroit sports have a super weird history with injuries. Former receiver Nate Burleson once broke his arm getting into a car accident because he was trying to save a pizza, and Tigers reliever Joel Zumaya injured his wrist from playing Guitar Hero too much, something that honestly doesn't get talked about enough.

Martin's replacement, Casey Redfern, was lost for the season when he tore his ACL and MCL in Week 1 on a gruesome hit. The Lions retaining Martin took up Jeff Locke's spot, who punted well in the interim. Rogers' story is unconfirmed -- the Lions and Martin elected not to confirm. They didn't deny it, however, which they were more than willing to do amid other swirling rumors. What matters, however, is that Martin is back. Last week against the Steelers was his first appearance, where he punted well outside of a shank.

Perhaps Martin will have better luck with his next magic conch. He's an excellent punter when available, and the Lions need all the help that they can get after struggling in recent weeks. Although Locke punted well, the ability to flip the field could be huge for the Lions moving forward.