Theismann Says He Will Be Back Next Season

Joe Theismann, saying that the pain he suffered from a broken leg in last Monday night’s game against the New York Giants was “twice worse than anything I’ve gone through in my life,” vowed to play for the Washington Redskins again next season.

“I don’t think the good Lord is ready for me to give up,” Theismann said at a hospital press conference, with his fiancee, television actress Cathy Lee Crosby, at his side. “I just want to get myself physically ready, because mentally, I’m ready already. I’m resolved that I will return to football.”

Theismann, 36, was the league’s oldest starting quarterback. The two major bones of his lower right leg were broken, the bone ends were crushed and the jagged edges of bone ripped through the skin when he was sacked by two New York Giants.

Meanwhile, Theismann’s No. 7 jersey was returned to the Redskins by William McLaughlin, a District of Columbia fire department paramedic, who said he only meant to keep it as a souvenir because “Theismann’s my man.”

McLaughlin also denied reports that he had attempted to sell the jersey.