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Bucs Beat: Cadillac smiling on road to recovery

Tribune file photo by CLIFF McBRIDE (2008)

Williams hurt his left knee in the season-ending game against Oakland, not long after returning from a severe right knee injury.

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By ROY CUMMINGS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 22, 2009

TAMPA - What next?

That's the question that keeps rolling around inside Cadillac Williams' head, the one that makes him nervous, if not a little hesitant, about his impending return to the playing field.

"I do wonder,'' Williams said. "What's going to happen this time?''

It's hard to blame him. Williams is, after all, among the rarest of not just athletes, but individuals, a man who, in essence, has twice been struck by the same bolt of lightning.

The first strike came in September 2007, in a game against Carolina, when Williams tore his right patellar tendon. The second came in December, in the season-ending game against Oakland, when Williams tore his left patellar tendon.

The injury is rare to begin with. Even rarer is the NFL running back who comes back from such an injury. Williams beat those odds, only to tear his other patellar tendon. What next, indeed.

"It's actually going very well,'' Williams said of his second comeback bid. "[The knee] feels fabulous. I mean, I've had no complications with this one at all, whereas I had all kinds of complications with the other one. It's really like night and day.''

Night was a seemingly endless run of trips to the doctor because the swelling and pain in his right knee just wouldn't go away, plus Williams' lingering fear he might never play again.

Day is a left knee that feels as if it were barely cut on at all, and a certainty neither this injury nor the first will force Williams to give up the game he loves and wants so badly to play.

"The difference, as bad as it sounds," Williams said, "is that I tore the tendon off the bone this time. Once you do that, it's actually easier [to recover].

"The first one, I shredded the tendon. It tore right in the middle. I also tore my [posterior cruciate ligament], so there was a lot more involved in that one. That rehab was much harder.''

This rehab isn't easy. It's been nearly five months, and Williams has yet to graduate from running in a straight line. Soon, though, he'll be cutting and digging again, putting those knees to the test.

That's what makes him a little anxious. It's no wonder. Since the Bucs made him the fifth pick in the 2005 draft, Williams has played in parts of four NFL seasons. Each has been disrupted, at least for a couple of games, by injuries.

A foot injury cost him a couple games during his rookie year. A back injury slowed him and eventually cost him a couple games a year later. Then came the back-to-back patellar tendon injuries.

Despite the setbacks, Williams remains optimistic about his future. With a smile on his face, he swears he will play again, and even pegs the start of training camp for his return.

"My mom has told me all through this to keep my faith and I've done that,'' he said. "It's really just a matter of staying focused and knowing that brighter days are ahead. I believe they are.''

Reporter Roy Cummings can be reached at (813) 259-7979.

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