Pain Game

The quarterback dropped back, unaware of a blitzing cornerback. A facemask-to-chest collision ensued, violently snapping the quarterback’s head forward, then back, rendering him as vulnerable as a bobble-head doll. His head bounced off a lineman’s leg before he landed in a heap, seemingly unconscious before hitting the ground.

The running back took the handoff and cut back to the left, planting his right foot and pushing off. He collapsed mid-stride, untouched. It looked as if he had been shot by a sniper. Rather, the inside of his knee had turned to spaghetti.

The receiver pulled in a routine pass. But the play ended with his head driving straight into the ground at full speed. He lay motionless for 20 minutes amid a mix of teammates praying and fans cheering. By the time he was loaded into an ambulance, his facemask had been removed, though the helmet on his stabilized head remained.

Steve Young. Jamal Anderson. Michael Irvin.

In the first five weeks of the 1999 NFL season, these three marquee players--along with reigning league most valuable player Terrell Davis and Pro Bowl quarterback Vinny Testaverde--each suffered devastating injuries that not only ended their individual seasons, but also altered the course of their respective team’s fortunes.

This spate of injuries to high-profile players begged the question: Were injuries on the rise in 1999, or was this just business as usual in a violent game?

In response, The Times tracked NFL injuries from 1997 through 1999, searching for players who sat out at least one game because of injury.

The results: Fewer players sat out because of injury in 1999 than in 1998, though the numbers are still staggering--364 players sat out 1,061 games because of 368 injuries. Based on the NFL’s 1998 average annual salary of $912,000 (or $57,000 a game), teams paid a combined $60,477,000 in 1999 to players who were unavailable because of injuries.

It’s easy to see, then, why Young termed 1999 the year of the “marquee” injury.

“When your top five running backs go out and then you look at the Pro Bowl quarterbacks from

last year, a number of guys, Vinny Testaverde was out right away . . .” Young said recently at the 49er compound in Santa Clara. “You’re looking at marquee value this year more than new injuries, I think.

“Players are getting faster, stronger, bigger, so you’re going to get bigger collisions. But I don’t know that that’s going to correlate to significant changes in [the number of] injuries.”

He was right. Despite 1999 being an expansion year with the reborn Cleveland Browns--meaning there were more players and more games, hence, greater chance for injury--there were only slightly more players per game who suffered injuries causing them to sit out at least one game in 1999 (.73) than in 1997 (.70).

In 1997, 335 players were sidelined for 937 games because of injury; in 1998, 398 players were sidelined for 1,340 games.

The Times’ survey also found a strain in terms of the most common injuries and the positions most likely to be injured.

While knee, ankle, hamstring and shoulder injuries were the top four each year--with more than twice as many knee injuries as ankle injuries each season--concussions more than doubled, from five each in 1997 and ’98 to 11 in ’99.

And while the number of quarterbacks and cornerbacks sidelined rose annually, linebackers were in the top four each year in terms of raw numbers.

Curiously, the guys that hit and get hit on every play, linemen, were lower on the most-injured totem pole.

It’s a physical game in which players at positions more likely to have violent collisions are more likely to get knocked out of

service.

Though the NFL likes to point out that there has never been scientific proof that artificial turf causes injuries, The Times’ survey showed that teams that play their home games on the fake stuff were among the more injury prone. (The league has had a scientist, John Powell of Michigan State, research every injury in painstaking detail for the last 20 years but declined to share its data with The Times.)

In 1999, 12 of the 14 teams that play their home games on artificial turf (85.7%) had 10 or more players sidelined because of injury while only nine of the 17 teams that play on grass (52.9%) had 10 or more sidelined because of injury.

Artificial turf teams had 192 players sidelined (13.7 players a team) while grass teams had 175 sidelined (10.3) in 1999. The league average was 11.8. And the five teams with the most injuries over the three years studied played

their home games on artificial

turf.

In 1999, six of the top seven most-injured teams played on artificial turf, as were three of the top six in 1998. In 1997, however, only two of the top six--the top two--had artificial-turf home fields.

The Times’ study also found that the more successful teams tended to be the least injured, and vice versa. Consider:

* The St. Louis Rams went from a tie for eighth on the injury list with 16 in 1998 to second fewest--and the Super Bowl--in the 1999 season.

* Three of the four finalists from the 1998 season--the Denver Broncos, Atlanta Falcons and New York Jets--were among the more injury-racked squads in 1999 and none made the playoffs. All four were in the bottom eight in injuries in 1998. In fact, the Jets went from being the least-injured team in 1998 to also-rans in ’99.

The Indianapolis Colts, meanwhile, experienced a reversal of fortune, going from chumps and most injured in ‘98, when they were 3-13, to division champs at 13-3, the biggest one-season turnaround in NFL history, after cutting their number of players sidelined because of injury in

half.

The combined record of the four least-injured teams in 1999--the Kansas City Chiefs, Washington Redskins, Tennessee Titans and Rams--blows away the cumulative mark of the four most-injured teams--the Detroit Lions, New York Giants, Falcons and Dallas Cowboys--45-19 (.703) to 28-36 (.438).

Dictating a Season

Coincidence?

Not according to Kent Falb, the Detroit Lions’ head athletic trainer.

“There’s no question that injuries do dictate the success or failure of a season,” said Falb, whose staff was honored as the 1998 NFL athletic training staff of the year. “A lot of coaches say that they win because they didn’t have any injuries. It’s been my observation in 34 years that you don’t get injuries because you win. My colleagues will all probably jump down my neck now but it just seems that people play with a greater level of awareness, a greater intensity when they’re playing well. They seem to be more alert.”

The Lions limped into the playoffs this season, having been hit hardest in the league by the injury bug. Their stay was short-lived as the Redskins thumped them, 27-13, in a wild-card game.

Redskin Coach Norv Turner, whose team was second in the league in terms of fewest players sidelined because of injury, said that staying away from the doctor is key.

“If you take a look around the league,” he said, “the teams that are fortunate enough to stay healthy are the ones that have the best chance of staying in the playoffs.”

Three of this year’s four finalists--the Rams, Titans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers--were among the 12 least-injured

teams.

49er Coach Steve Mariucci pretty much blamed his team’s M*A*S*H unit of a 4-12 season on injuries.

The 49ers had 16 players sidelined for at least one game, fifth most in the league. Throw in a pair of freakish injuries--tight end Greg Clark’s punctured lung, apparently suffered when a team trainer was giving him an injection as treatment for broken ribs, and rookie defensive tackle Chikezie Okeafor’s lower back injury, suffered in a pickup basketball game before training camp--and you get a sense of Mariucci’s frustration.

“We said prior to the season, even after having lost 30 players from last year’s team to begin this year because of all the salary-cap moves we had to make, we felt at that point we still could be competitive, we still could be a playoff team if we remained relatively healthy,” Mariucci said. “Well, they’re dropping like flies. So, let’s hope it’s a one-time thing, from an injury standpoint. We’re going to have to deal with salary cap again, but let’s hope that you never have a year quite this devastating with being unlucky with so many injuries.

“If there’s a law of averages, maybe it evens out and we don’t have any injuries next year. All of a sudden you’re back, back in the mix.”

In the salary-cap era, however, teams are doubly hurt when players are sidelined because of injury.

Just more than a decade ago, teams could have more than 100 players in training camp, allowing for more contact and plenty of reinforcements if players were injured. Now an injured player’s salary counts against the cap, which make it difficult for teams to sign players to replace those injured.

“I will tell you the biggest dilemma for coaches now, is how do you handle training camp?” said former Dallas Cowboy coach Chan Gailey, who had 16 players sidelined, fourth highest in the league, en route to finishing 8-8. “How do you handle practice? Do you really get after them and take the chance of people getting hurt, or do you be smart about it, take it easy, get assignments down, but

then not condition them for the knocks of the season? It used to be you just went out there and cracked heads, the cream rose to the top and when someone went down, you put him on injured reserve and said, ‘Just bring me

Please see INJURIES, Page 9

The Turf Is Always Greener The Falcons found out how tough it was to compete without a superstar when Anderson went down on the Sportfield turf of Texas Stadium during the second “Monday Night Football” game of the season.

Anderson, who was already playing catch-up as the result of a lengthy training-camp holdout, went from a 1,846-yard season to season-ending knee surgery and rehab for the torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

“It was a draw play. I cut to my left and the turf monster got me,” Anderson said. “I thought, ‘Naa, I’m not hurt that bad.’ It burned a lot. There was a lot of burning.

“[Artificial turf was created because the league] just wanted to make it more efficient. They were not thinking about the players, trust me.”

The NFL Players Assn. has been conducting a survey of players for the last five years, querying them on such topics as synthetic fields.

In 1998, 96% of the league’s 900-plus players said that playing on artificial turf leaves them feeling sorer than playing on grass; 94% believe that artificial turf is more likely to contribute to an injury; and 50% said that they could identify a previous injury that was caused by artificial turf.

Is it any real surprise, then, that the players ranked artificial-turf fields in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and the Meadowlands in New Jersey at the bottom of their list of most desirable places to play?

An NFL-commissioned study covering the 1980-89 seasons showed that there could be an increased risk for certain types of knee injuries--sprains, anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligament injuries--on artificial turf.

Yet while players believe that artificial turf doesn’t belong in NFL stadiums, league official George Young defended its use.

“There is no significant difference between the rug and turf in terms of injuries,” he said. “In the year 2000, only 25% of the stadiums will have artificial turf, so it’s a moot point anyway. The new stadiums are going to have grass.”

Actually, it will be 40%, even with the Jets and Giants playing on grass next season in Giants Stadium. The Seattle Seahawks and Cincinnati Bengals will play on grass when their new stadiums open in the near future.

Research by the Times showed that of the five most common injuries in 1999--knee, ankle, hamstring, shoulder and foot--64% happened on artificial turf fields or in the week immediately following a game played on turf, a significant number considering most games are played on grass.

“Turf shouldn’t be played on; it just shouldn’t be played on,” the 49ers’ Young said. “It’s not fair when grass is available. I mean, if grass was outlawed or grass died and couldn’t be, then maybe something else could be used. Hopefully it wouldn’t be [artificial] turf. But the fact that grass is available, [artificial] turf shouldn’t be played on.”

Not even in domed stadiums, such as at NFC West rival Atlanta--site of Sunday’s Super Bowl--St. Louis and New Orleans?

“Football shouldn’t be played indoors,” Young said. “It’s like playing golf under the lights. Something’s wrong with that.”

Playing With Pain

While there’s no doubt that football is a violent game--Oakland Raider quarterback Rich Gannon compared it to being involved in a weekly car crash--and injuries are a part of it, players are more likely to play through pain if they feel that the powers that be are giving them much-needed love and respect.

Raider running back Tyrone Wheatley knew he had a reputation as an injury-prone malcontent during his days with the Giants. After the Miami Dolphins cut him in training camp, the Raiders made Wheatley feel appreciated. He rushed for a career-high 936 yards and eight touchdowns, and he did it with a nagging shoulder injury and suffering a back injury in week seven.

“I wasn’t quote-unquote a marquee player and [the Giants] weren’t trying to give me a chance to be one, so your mentality shifts like, ‘OK, I’m not going to go out there and kill myself if I’m not being rewarded for it,’ ” Wheatley said. “In New York, I cracked my ribs one game on a kickoff return but that was all I was doing--returning kicks. Hell, they can find a kickoff return man a dime a dozen.

“But if I was in there running the ball 25, 20 times a game, I would have found a way to be in there. I hate to say it and I hate to be that way but that’s just the way it is. Most guys won’t [admit] it. But a lot of guys would do it.”

But with the Raiders, Wheatley felt the impetus to get back, what with the perceived respect afforded him in Oakland. He showed up for work two days after spending the night in a hospital because of his back injury. He had been tackled awkwardly and when he stood up, he had no feeling in his left leg and was carted off the field. He also had jammed his shoulder four weeks earlier.

“I hurt my shoulder in the Chicago game and wasn’t able to finish that game and didn’t think I was going to be able to play the next game,” he said. “I didn’t practice that whole week. But I said, ‘OK, this is Seattle, this is a big game, we need it. I need it as much as they need it. Let’s shoot the thing up and let’s play.’ . . .

“It’s just one of those deals where if you’re going to be rewarded for playing through pain and injury, I think almost everybody would do it,” said Wheatley, who was rewarded with a new contract during the season. “But if you’re not going to be rewarded for it, your mentality is like, ‘Why should I?’ ”

Bryant Young, the 49ers’ All-Pro defensive tackle, acknowledged that line of thinking, though he had to endure more than mere painkillers for the gruesome broken leg he suffered late in the 1998 season.

“[Rehab] can get to be a little frustrating because your mind is there but your body is not there with the mind,” said Young, who played his way to this season’s NFL comeback player of the year with a 16-inch titanium rod in his lower left leg. “That’s where patience comes in.”

George Young, an NFL official who was the Giants’ longtime general manager, doesn’t buy into the quick-fix mentality either.

“I saw more of that [shooting players up with painkillers to get them on the field] in ‘North Dallas Forty’ than I saw in my whole professional career,” he said. “Different players react in different ways to injuries. Some are very macho and think they have to play hurt. Some won’t tell you when they are injured.

“You almost have to force them to go to the doctor.”

Old School’s in Session

That notion can be traced to football’s Golden Age, when players simply refused to be injured--or at least didn’t admit to it.

“A lot of times injuries are different today and that is all predicated and determined by the agent of the player,” Raider Hall of Fame center Jim Otto said. “The agent, naturally, wants to make some money and he doesn’t want to see his cash cow going down the drain, so he may have advice for a certain type of bruise or injury whereas the trainer and coach might think something altogether different. I don’t know this for a fact but as I see it out there, you see more and more guys taking the bench in lieu of playing injured.”

Otto, 62, is every bit the old warrior, having endured 38 surgeries, 28 involving his knees. Both of his shoulders, both knees and part of his back are artificial after a 15-year career in which he started 210 consecutive games.

“We played with broken bones, torn ligaments, broken jaws,” he said. “We did it all because No. 1, we wanted to play football; No. 2 we didn’t get paid very much and we wanted to make that paycheck. We didn’t want to be a part of a guy that would be laid off or laying off himself, so we played. We gave of ourselves during that time not only for those reasons but also for our team. We loved to play football.”

Former Ram lineman Jackie Slater agreed.

“There is a lot more sensationalism to a concussion now,” he said. “We used to just call it getting your bell rung. Certainly if you got over it, you went back in the next week. When I played, it was unheard-of for a guy to miss a game because he had had a concussion the week before.”

Otto and Slater said that it takes a special kind of person to play in the NFL.

“Any player that comes out, subjects himself to training camp and goes through the work throughout the year after he makes the team, must want to play,” Otto said. “But to what extent, that’s in his own mind.”

Said Slater: “Guys will play with pain that would put a normal guy in bed for several weeks. Let’s not make a mistake by saying a guy should play with injuries, but you have to play hurt because you are hurt all the time.”

That’s eventually what prompted Chris Spielman to retire last summer after 10 years as a linebacker--the possibility of being permanently paralyzed.

“I had a fusion, but there was a degeneration of the spine,” Spielman said. “A disk was bulging out and it kept bruising my spine. If I got hit in the helmet, and the disk hit the spinal cord, I would suffer temporary paralysis. I was playing with fire.

“There is a point of being tough and a point of being stupid.”

Is Everything Being Done? Having suffered his fourth concussion in the last three seasons, Steve Young wonders if everything is really being done to insure the safety of NFL players.

“If there are hits in the game that the league does not want, then they need to fine [the players that make them] significantly or it won’t change anything,” Young said. “If there are certain things that they want not to happen, players subconsciously will learn if there’s a significant penalty to it. . . . If the penalties were significant, it would register.”

Young’s agent, Leigh Steinberg, said that while he has organized annual player safety conferences that focus on such topics as concussions, turf and helmet construction, he doesn’t expect reform to be pushed by the players or anyone involved directly with the game.

“The reality of the situation is that this is a game where they’re going to have some aches and bruises at the end of their career,” he said. “And they might have some trouble picking up their child when they’re 40 years old. But the real problem is not being able to identify that child.”

NFLPA spokesman Carl Francis says that the union, whose biggest concerns are playing surfaces and noncontact injuries, has been trying to get the league to combine with them for a cooperative and comprehensive injury study. Francis said that they have offered to bring in the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to join in such a study but cannot get the NFL to cooperate.

The NFL says that no such offer has been made and, besides, it has had its own study.

“I don’t know how much more we can do about injuries,” the NFL’s George Young said. “Nobody pays more attention to them than I do. I call [New York Giant trainer] Ronnie Barnes when some of these [injuries] look a little new.

“I think the MRI has revolutionized the diagnostic part. We know more about injuries because we see more. It might be that it makes doctors a little bit more conservative because they know more. Take the high ankle sprain. In the old days, we used to think that it was just an ankle sprain. Now we are finding out it is much different and it has to be treated differently.”

“We have larger medical staffs and better medicine being practiced. We’re more organized. We have safety committees with 10 or more doctors, a concussions committee. It’s an ongoing process.”

It’s also a process that can’t come to fruition fast enough for Steinberg or Steve Young.

“Our whole nomenclature is one of denial,” Steinberg said. “ ‘Monday Night Football’ begins with two helmets crashing together, which would cause a concussion. The brain is the last frontier of medical research. A concussion is not just getting your bell rung or getting knocked into space or whatever they call it. It’s your brain bouncing off your skull. It’s about senility, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Look, if we can send a man to the moon, we can make a more absorbent and safer helmet.”

Said Young: “The problem is helmet manufacturers face so much liability that there’s not a lot of incentive to go out and get innovative. That’s where the league needs to take a hand in. I think there’s probably a lot more technology out there than we realize and really the helmet’s the only place you can really change.

“You’ve got to understand, we put more technology in our helmet now that’s not padding, it’s technology. That’s a factor too. All of a sudden we’ve got batteries and two-way radios and that’s in your helmet. That’s tough to protect from.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE BIG PICTURE

*--*

Games Injuries missed 1997 335 937 1998 398 1,340 1999 364 1,061

*--*

BY POSITION

Injuries/Games missed at three positions

*--*

‘97 ’98 ’99 Quarterback 16/47 20/101 22/95 Running back 31/88 50/175 43/140 Wide receiver 45/136 43/127 41/115

*--*

BY TYPE

The top 3 types of injuries:

*--*

‘97 ’98 ’99 Knee 104 131 122 Ankle 50 54 52 Hamstring 29 35 30

*--*

TURF VS. GRASS

1999 major injuries:

*--*

Total Turf Grass Knee 122 79 43 Ankle 52 36 16 Hamstring 30 17 13

*--*

Complete List, Page 8

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THOMAS PARALYZED

Kansas City linebacker Derrick Thomas was paralyzed from the waist down after a single-car accident that broke his neck and killed a friend. Thomas still has use of his upper body. Page 6

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THE TRAINER

Steve Antonopulos, above, Bronco trainer the last 24 years, recounts a typical week for an NFL trainer and the dynamics surrounding today’s athlete. Page 7

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BENEFITS

Many hobbled former NFL players are cared for under the terms of a pension/disability plan, but some players fall through the cracks in the system. Page 8

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THE FAMILY

Former Ram offensive guard Tom Mack says a stable family life with his wife and daughters allowed him to stay focused and block out injuries. Page 9

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Times staff writers Steve Springer, T.J. Simers and J.A. Adande contributed to this report.