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Bucs Beat: Injury Bug Bites Bucs Again Against Carolina

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2007

INDIANAPOLIS - Chris Simms stood in front of his locker early last week, shaking is head in disbelief. The irony of the situation was just too great to comprehend.

A year ago, just as he was starting to bounce back from a horribly slow start, Simms went down during a game against the Carolina Panthers with a ruptured spleen. One day later, he was ruled out for the season.

A year later, just as he was starting to bounce back nicely from a slow start of his own, Cadillac Williams went down during a game against the Panthers with a torn knee tendon. One day later, he was ruled out for the season.

'Carolina's just not good luck for us,' Simms said.

Simms wasn't exaggerating. Before last Sunday, when the Bucs beat the Panthers but lost Williams and left tackle Luke Petitgout to season-ending knee injuries, the Bucs had won just one of their previous seven meetings.

That's not all they've lost. Throw in Simms, Williams and Petitgout, and you bring to at least four the number of impact players the Bucs have lost due to injury against Carolina.

Some may forget, but the Bucs lost receiver Joe Jurevicius during the 2003 game against Carolina. That's the one the Bucs lost 12-9 in overtime after having two field goals and a potential game-winning extra point blocked. One of the heroes of the Super Bowl season, Jurevicius went down with a knee sprain after he collided with Mike Alstott's helmet early in the third quarter. Jurevicius tried to come back seven weeks later, but he played in two games before he returned to the sideline and was never really the same again, at least not for the Bucs.

That also was the game when Alstott's neck problems began. He got nicked up during that collision with Jurevicius. Two weeks later, he was lost for the season.

Now Williams and Petitgout are out for the year, and you have to wonder if that's all they'll miss. At 31, Petitgout's injury may be career-threatening, and Williams' injury is definitely of that variety.

The Bucs didn't want to acknowledge that last week. They preferred to say Williams will come back, but football players who suffer torn patellar tendon injuries, as Williams did, don't come back quickly or easily.

At best, it will take Williams several months to recover from his latest setback. At worst, it could take him several years. Either way, there's a chance he'll never be the same.

'That injury at the running back position is a tough one to come back 100 percent from,' said Johnny Benjamin, chairman of orthopedics at Indian River Medical Center of Vero Beach. 'Leg strength and drive are very important and hard to generate after this type of injury.'

LeCharles Bentley, a center for the Cleveland Browns, can attest to Benjamin's findings. He tore his patellar tendon on the first day of training camp last year. He still hasn't made it back. He is on the physically unable to perform list, the hope being that he will be well enough to attempt a comeback either later this month or early next month. Bentley has undergone four surgeries on his knee since he injured it, including two for staph infections that developed inside the knee. He says he'll never be 100 percent again.

'And I'm not expecting it to be,' Bentley told The News-Herald earlier this year. 'But if I can get it into the 90s, that's good enough."

It wasn't good enough for former Bucs running back Charlie Garner. Garner tore the patellar tendon in his knee during a 30-20 loss to the Oakland Raiders on Sept. 28, 2004. He never played again.

Nate Webster, another former Buc, hasn't stopped playing. His story may be the one that provides Williams with inspiration.

After joining the Bengals as a free agent in 2004, Webster tore a patellar tendon during a Week 3 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. He missed the rest of the 2004 season and all but one game of 2005 as a result. He signed with the Denver Broncos before the 2006 season, but he played in three games last year. This year, however, he is starting for the Broncos at strong-side linebacker and he's making an impact, ranking fourth on the team with 26 tackles.

'It's not even in my mind right now,' Webster said when asked by the Boulder Camera about his knee injury. 'That's a blessing for me - to come out here and not even think of it and just play ball like I used to back in the day."

Williams one day may play like he used to as well. But that day is probably months, if not years, away.

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