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Wednesday, December 5, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
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Ex-football player survives career-ending sports injury
By Courtney Eblen Kansan staff writer
KU trainer finds athletes' accidents painful to deal with
It began as a stunt, something to astound and gross out his buddies and grade-school teachers. David brought in the kids to pop his left arm out of its socket
"They all thought it was kind of neat," said Gordon, a fifth-year senior from Independence. "It didn't seem like a big deal to me because my shoulders are weird. They're kind of double-jointed."
Mark Cairns, an athletic trainer for KU, said he found it nerve-racking to run out to the football field or the basketball court lugging a medical case and wondering how badly a player had been hurt.
"As I'm running out to see what's going on, I try to run the play back through my mind." he said. "You have to put worry out of your mind and just do what you can to keep it from getting worse."
That uncanny flexibility got him into trouble later, when he joined the Kansas Jayhawks as a defensive tackle in 1986. As Gordon shoved opposing offensive players onto the artificial turf and subsequently knocked his arm out, he shrugged it back into place and then ignored it.
But when he began his fourth season last year, his shoulder began separating at times when he didn't want it to Stabbing pain went well. He then stopped each time it jarred out of place. That was the end of collegiate sports for him.
When treating an injured player, Cairns looks first at the player's position on the ground Broken or improperly positioned. usually, if the body is limp, it could
"I'd hit somebody, or I'd get hit,
and it was very painful." Gordon said. "The ligaments were so loose
that it was coming out of place forward, backward and down. All three directions were messed up."
Gordon's injury brought his college football career to an end. Although such career-ending injuries are rare in the age of orthopedic surgery, high-tech rehabilitation and increased focus on sport safety, they are still a hazard with which all athletes must contend.
Painful for trainers
Injuries that threaten careers are difficult not only for athletes, but also for coaches and trainers.
"If we have an unconscious patient, we immediately call for paramedic assistance," he said.
indicate unconsciousness or paralysis.
Paramedics use cervical collars and a spine boards to stabilize injured athletes for transport to the hospital. Aircrops and splints are added to the solid spine board to stabilize injuries to arms and legs.
Cairns recalled watching from the sidelines at Madison Square Garden during a basketball game against St. John's in late 1867, when he saw Archie Marshall land crookedly on his left leg after coming down from a layup.
”
I didn't one day just say,
'This is it.' I knew all
along I probably wasn't
going to play again.
former Kansas football player
"I saw his knee explode," Cairns said. "When I went out there, I could almost dislocate his knee for him. He tore it apart."
Before a surgical method to repair the injury was introduced a few years ago, knee injuries such as Marshall's, a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament, frequently ended careers.
”
Marshall's knee was repaired by Wertzberger, and Marshall has continued his basketball career. It was the second time Marshall had damaged a knee. He suffered a similar injury to his right knee during the 1986 NCAA championship finals.
Cairns said that since anterior cruciate surgery became successful, most career-ending injuries occur within 24 hours of blow to the head, neck and back.
Others,' like David Gordon, quit because they literally have worked their bodies to the liver, and their joints just give in.
Cairns said that some potentially threatening injuries could be prevented during pre-season examinations. These include stenosis, or an abnormally narrow
spinal canal. The condition can render a football player susceptible to paralysis if his head suddenly jams to one side.
Worn-out joints
Cairns said several potential KU players careers ended before they were diagnosed with cervical cancer and were not allowed to play.
Ken Wertzberger, who performed reconstructive surgery on Gordon's left shoulder, said nearly every serious athlete ignored minor aches and pains. Athletes are used to taping their injuries on the sidelines and to them. But unless injuries are given up, irreversible damage can result.
"Athletes don't like to rest," Wertzberger said. "And that is the best way to get rid of pain."
Wertzberger tightened Gordon's left shoulder joint with a metal screw, but the ligament damage would affect him permanently. Gordon was told that his chances of making a comeback were slim, but trainers continued to offer assistance with rehabilitation.
Gordon tried not to think about his odds and began a light weightlifting regimen in hopes of strengthening his shoulder again. Then really sank in.
"I didn't one day just say, 'This is it,'" Gordon said. "I knew all along I probably wasn't going to play again."
But Gordon has survived life without football.
He and his wife, Leigh, have a 16-month old son, Curtis. Gordon no longer lifts weights. Wrangling his son has proven to be exercise enough.
Curtis hasn't shown any interest in football yet, aside from chewing off one end of his Nefr ball. Gordon said that despite the specter of his injuries, he would not stop Curtis from playing football when he got older.
"I'll leave that up to him," Gordon said. "It's his choice."
Gordon's football scholarship was not revoked because of his injury, and he plans to graduate in May with a degree in communications. He said that the decision to quit playing football had the games and the camaraderie.
"I didn't think I would, but I do," Gordon said.
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