Posted by Johnnymac 5:59 PM
In 1991, we were damn good. I had actually forgotten how good we were that year. 409 to 175? Are you kidding me? 4 shutouts in 5 games outscoring the opponents 201 to 16 in that stretch? Good lord. It's funny how now looking back 16 years later that it was something so obviously special and unusual and the sad thing is that back then we just all took it for granted.

You appreciate things more when you get older. Funny that.

(A few of you probably are good friends with our quarterback to this day. Please tell him hello for me if you see him...)

But all of that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is that if you look the year before, 1990, something's missing from the schedule: THE SCRIMMAGE. Remember how Boobie Miles hurt his knee in that scrimmage and the whole focus of that outstanding book and atrocious movie (why make those idiots into sympathetic heroes?) was how he was never the same. Well, the same thing happened to me, too.

In 1990 (the year before the special season) we started the season with a scrimmage in this stadium against these guys. The kid in front of me was rather puny and easily pushed around, and being a BMOC high school football player myself, I started talking all kinds of trash to him and continued to do so throughout the entire scrimmage. He was mad. He was embarrassed. He was getting yelled at by his coaches. I was loving it.

And then that QB I mention above threw an interception and I dutifully ran over to join in on the tackle, except right before I got there Mr Puny McDipshit hit me in the back. My right leg stayed planted but the rest of me fell over sideways and I felt and heard what seemed like bubble wrap getting ripped apart inside of me knee. It was a dirty-ass hit. His coaches yelled at him, our coaches yelled at their coaches and I just lay on the ground wondering what happened. After a little while I made it back to the bench where the doctor played around with my knee while I sat there crying because I figured my season was ruined and I was out of the season opener at (now DKR) Memorial Stadium in Austin two weeks later. But the doctor said it felt stable and that he thought it was just a minor sprain, that maybe my kneecap moved around a little bit, but that I would eventually be fine. And two weeks later I was on the field in Austin as we won our first game of the year.

My knee was never the same and I lost a step after that and I'm pretty sure it cost me a real football scholarship (funny how the letters and calls just stop when something like that happens). I've been able to function pretty darn good, but I've always had a bum knee ever since that night in Brownwood.

For the most part it's just been mild pain swelling all this time, but lately it's just gotten worse over the past couple of years until finally, this past October, I tried to play in the company softball tournament and couldn't walk the next day, so I finally decided to go see the doctor again. My GP recommended this guy and his initial diagnosis was, "Yeah, that's a little crunchy and stiff in there, isn't it? I think it's just arthritis from the old injury, but lets do an MRI to be sure."

Me: "Is it possibly an ACL injury from long ago? It feels unstable sometimes and hurts to cut and jump."

"No. Your knee feels stable. There's no way you have a 15 year old ACL injury. You wouldn't be able to walk."

Me: "umm... OK."

So I had to put off the MRI until after January 1st for insurance reasons, but I finally went and did it last week and, after the long windup, the point here is that I went to see the doctor this morning to get the results of the MRI:

"John, are you aware just how serious your knee is injured? It looks from the MRI that you have a torn ACL, and from the looks of all the collateral damage and arthritis in there, it appears to be a really old injury. You must have done this back in High School, if I had to guess. You need to get this repaired right away before it gets any more worse!"

"Really? I had no idea!"

So we're trying to find a day right now that works, schedule wise. I'll be off my feet for 5 days, on crutches for about 10 days after that, and rehabbing for at least 6-8 months. I am looking forward to getting it fixed, finally, but the road ahead is kind of daunting to say the least.

As always, more details to come...

1 Comment(s):

Posted by  Dr Fro, at 3:07 PM, January 27, 2008  

I'm sorry to hear that, bro. On the other hand, it must be nice to have some certainty and a clear path forward.

We'll pray for you.

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