"To go upstairs from his home office, Campbell -- unable to grip with his hands or bend his knees--must lean his forearms on the railings and drag himself up the eight or 10 steps. The process is as painful to watch as it must be for Campbell to complete."

Call me a killjoy, but I've long disliked watching football because of the terrible injuries that the players suffer. Typically as it goes with men, the players don't complain because the players are men, and the fans, owners, players' union, and media don't complain because the players are men.

The result is that many football players are hobbled or even crippled at an early age. I like the game of football in general, but for 20 years I've been a non-fan because I don't like being associated with a sport which causes so much harm to so many people.

I was reminded of the issue when I recently stumbled across an old Sports Illustrated article--The Wrecking Yard. I was particularly horrified by its description of then 46-year-old Earl Campbell.

Remember him? When I was a kid he was perhaps the greatest running back in the NFL. To see some of his great runs, click here and here.

I remember a friend of mine having him on his Strat-O-Matic Football team and me keying on Campbell constantly in a vain attempt to stop him.

Today, Campbell is virtually a cripple. From Sports Illustrated:

Earl Campbell has a dazzling assortment of rings that were given to him in honor of his storied accomplishments as a college and pro running back: the Heisman Trophy ring, the NFL Rookie of the Year ring, one MVP ring (though he was MVP three times) and the NFL Hall of Fame ring, but he wears none of them because of arthritis in both his hands, the ones that he used to push away pursuing tacklers. "Jim Brown and I were the best at the stiff-arm," says Campbell. "Now I can barely close my left fist -- the arthritis and the soreness and the pain."

Campbell was a complete force as a running back, fast enough to turn the corner and race upfield, strong enough to crash through the line. He always seemed to be running out of his clothes; it was as if he invented the tear-away jersey. The abiding memory of Campbell is that of a man charging down the field with three defenders clinging to his back. It was easy to imagine him in the end zone dressed in nothing more than his jockstrap and shoulder pads, standing there with a quizzical smile on his face and various large bodies scattered behind him, each clutching a remnant of his uniform. As his Houston Oilers coach, Bum Phillips, said, "Earl Campbell may not be in a class by himself, but whatever class he's in, it doesn't take long to call roll."

Now 46 and the owner of a barbecue restaurant and a sausage-making business in Austin, Campbell winces at more than his swollen digits. His knees and back ache ceaselessly. He also has a condition called drop foot: As a result of nerve damage to his legs, he cannot raise the front of his feet when he lifts them off the ground to take a step. The feet flop along loosely when he walks. To use the bathroom upstairs from his home office, Campbell -- unable to grip with his hands or bend his knees--must lean his forearms on the railings and drag himself up the eight or 10 steps. The process is as painful to watch as it must be for Campbell to complete.

"I realize that every time you get something in life, you've got to give up something," he says. He likes to hunt deer and wild boar in south Texas, and he is reminded of what he gave the game whenever he is home on the range. "Sometimes it gets to the point that I can't stand the pain, like when I've got to walk a lot," he says. "Thank God I'm with people who understand me: 'Take all the time you need.' It's embarrassing when I've got to hop onto the back of a pickup and I need help. Or I need help climbing into deer blinds.

"Sometimes I tell my wife, 'Shoot, if I knew it was going to hurt like this, I don't know if I'd have [played football].' It's a hell of a price to pay."

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 6th, 2008 at 3:59 pm and is filed under Baseball/Sports. You can trackback from your own site.