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Lonestar
08-16-2010, 01:21 AM
njury rehab one tough process for Broncos players
Healing can be a long task for players, who often measure progress by the smallest degrees.
By Jeff Legwold
The Denver Post
POSTED: 08/15/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT


Broncos tackle Ryan Harris, left, one of the main protectors of quarterback Kyle Orton, had to go through a long rehab after a toe injury. ( John Leyba, The Denver Post )
They are the walking wounded, the procession of players that files past a Broncos practice on its way from one stop to another in the day-to-day grind that is football healing.

Football is, at its roots, large, athletically gifted people slamming into each other at high speeds. They are guided missiles of humanity, and something must give at times.

"You always get to the end of the season and kind of go over what hurts and what it will take to fix," Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey said. "I was fortunate after last season not to need anything done or to miss any time. But injuries are part of the deal, and sometimes trying to get back from one is part of it too."

With training camp only two weeks old, the Broncos have felt the sting of injuries and have a crowded training room, filled with players trying to get back on the field. That challenge can be a trying endeavor, with progress measured minute by minute, hour by hour. Players are often like children trapped in the back seat on a cross-country ride, asking "Are we there yet?" with every passing mile.

"You've got to understand the smallest gains will be the biggest gains for you," said Broncos offensive tackle Ryan Harris, who missed eight games last season with a toe injury and the ensuing surgery and finished the season on injured reserve.

"There were times when moving a toe a degree more every day was all that I was focused on," he said. "To look at something small like that as progress and make it something positive for you is tough. Six, eight, 12 months of it, small gains every day. You have to tell yourself through that (that) you're going to get back."

Some injuries don't take as long. Some entail a week's worth of rehab with the team's trainers or a specialized program with the team's strength staff as the Broncos try to maintain a player's conditioning while allowing the injury to heal.

It can mean hours in the training room, often before the team's other players arrive or during practice when the team is on the field. At one point last season, quarterback Kyle Orton wore an electronic stimulation device on his injured ankle as he would attend his weekly position meetings, a common sight as players try to heal and prepare to be able to take the field for the coming game.

"You always tell yourself you're ready to go when maybe you're not," said Broncos nose tackle Jamal Williams, who missed 15 games last year with the Chargers because of an arm injury. "I know last year I felt like at the end of the season I could have played, but they had put me on injured reserve, so that was it. But you go through all that and you want to play. I still think I could have, but if it's one week or eight months, you have to believe you'll make it back or you'll make yourself crazy."

The Broncos don't allow injured players who have missed practice to speak publicly about their progress until they return to the practice field. The league requires no injury report during the preseason as it does during the regular season, so Broncos coach Josh McDaniels rarely offers specifics on a player's injury status until the regular season begins.

"The player's health is the primary concern," McDaniels said. "When they're ready to get back out there, they'll be out there. We won't bring them back too soon. I know they work as hard as they possibly can to get back out there."

Former Broncos linebacker Nick Greisen, who was waived by the team Thursday, missed the 2009 season with a knee injury he suffered in training camp. He said the hardest part about recovery is it never happens as quickly as a player would like.

"You know careers aren't very long, that there aren't that many roster spots, that teams never feel like they have enough depth," Greisen said. "So when you're recovering from some kind of injury, you can always feel like it's not happening fast enough.

"And when you miss a whole year like I did, you watch everybody travel, you watch everybody go to meetings, you watch everybody play games and you're kind of on your own. You don't feel part of things, and all you want is to be part of things."

Players who were not healthy enough to play did not make the trip to Cincinnati for tonight's preseason opener. The feeling is their time can be better spent continuing to rehab rather than spending time crammed into an airplane and standing on the sidelines.

"And that can mess with your head a bit too, even though you understand," Harris said. "You're used to being at the game, getting ready, and to see your team on TV, that's just another thing you deal with."

So whether it's lifting the same weight over and over, repeating the same set of stretching exercises, the piles of ice, the heating pads, recovery is based on the passage of time. One day to the next, a player is always hoping the finish comes quickly.

"I think sometimes you feel good, but sometimes you don't feel like the player you used to be, especially if you're out for a while," Greisen said. "You kind of lose yourself and have to get it back and find out who you are again as a football player. Or at least that's the goal, to come back and feel like you did when you left."

Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos2009/ci_15782235?source=rss

sneakers
08-16-2010, 01:30 AM
My Brother, my sister and I all tore our ACLs in a 6-month period in 1996/1997...this has nothing to do with the thread but I thought I would share.