Montana’s Surgeon Says He Is ‘Crazy’ to Play

Despite statements from his surgeon that he is “crazy” to be playing football, quarterback Joe Montana of the San Francisco 49ers said he would return to action today against the St. Louis Cardinals, seven weeks after undergoing a delicate back operation.

“For him to go out and put his back under direct, unprotected trauma is crazy,” Dr. Arthur White said Friday. “I told Joe from the first day I met him that I don’t recommend that people I do surgery on go back to anything that’s out of control--that they should stay in control of their spines for the rest of their lives.”

Both Montana and Coach Bill Walsh said their minds were not changed by the comments made by White at a medical panel in San Francisco. White earlier this week had cleared Montana to play.

Walsh and Montana implied that a professional football player is far beyond the limits of a normal individual as defined by White. So did White, who acknowledged that Montana is as fit now as he will ever be.

“He’s just talking about what the normal person would do,” said Montana, who ruptured a disk in the season opener at Tampa Bay. “He’s talking from a medical standpoint.”

White’s remarks were made at the Challenge of the Lumbar Spine, an annual meeting of back care specialists.

Later, the doctor added to a reporter: “I would not subject myself to that trauma and I would not recommend that my kids play football and I don’t recommend that a professional football player play football before, during or after back surgery.

“But Joe Montana is a football player. That’s what he wants to do. And he is safer now playing football than he was last year. I have to medically clear him.”

Walsh said much the same.

“Naturally, we want to do the right thing,” he said. “We’re not about to operate, even by degree, any differently than is recommended by our medical staff and the physician himself. But he has not really changed his position at all. He just said football is a crazy game.”