O’Neal Gets More Than Just Support From Brace

Now if he had a cast on his knee, Charger defensive end Leslie O’Neal said, he would probably be depressed.

But wearing a large brace is a different story. He can take a brace off and catch a glimpse of the knee that was operated on last Wednesday.

“I really can’t say I’m depressed because I don’t have a cast on it,” said O’Neal Wednesday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. “With a brace, I can take it (knee) out and look at it and see progress.” It was O’Neal’s first news conference since he underwent reconstructive surgery at Barton Memorial Hospital in Lake Tahoe on a torn medial collateral and anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

O’Neal is taking the brace off in order to get some movement and also doing deep bends with his good right knee.

Seattle Seahawk halfback Curt Warner, who suffered a similar injury, said Wednesday: “The first couple of weeks (after the operation) were probably my lowest point. Then I hit some down periods when I went through rehabilitation.”

O’Neal believes he has weathered the first week well--mentally and physically.

“I’m not in as much pain as I was,” said O’Neal, who plans to return to Lake Tahoe in two to three weeks to get his stitches removed. “Actually I’m trying to keep from taking the pain pills which they’ve told me to take every three or four hours.”

O’Neal is a long way away from running--about six months--but he is concentrating on the future rather than on the injury he suffered against Indianapolis Nov. 30.

“Returning for training camp is not realistic, but I would like to come back by the first half of next season,” said O’Neal, who remains optimistic despite being told by doctors he might miss all of next season. “Maybe I could play in spots in the first, second and third games.”

O’Neal is both haunted and encouraged by Kellen Winslow’s and Warner’s rehabilitations. Both suffered similar knee injuries and were out of football for virtually a year, but both are back playing regularly.

Warner, who faces the Chargers this Sunday in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, rushed for 1,094 yards and caught 47 passes last season and has rushed for 1,196 yards so far this season.

“I’m probably running a little stronger now than I have in the past few years,” Warner said.

But his comeback was not easy.

“I don’t wish that injury upon anyone,” Warner said. “It’s a tough injury to come back from, but it can be done. . . . There are so many ups and downs through the whole period (of rehabilitation). You learn to be patient through the whole thing. You can’t wish it back.”

O’Neal said he asked Dr. Richard Steadman, the surgeon who performed the operation, what could hamper his comeback.

“He said, ‘If the cartilage didn’t heal,’ ” O’Neal said. “But he said he didn’t have anyone whose cartilage didn’t heal.”

That brought a smile from the Chargers’ first-round draft choice from Oklahoma State, who was a leading candidate to be Rookie of the Year before his injury.

“I can honestly say that when I got hurt I was up there with the best in the league,” O’Neal said. “I had a good shot at it, but I don’t know now.”

While in the hospital last week, O’Neal said he had a lot of time to think.

Did he regret not wearing a knee brace against the Colts, as he had done regularly throughout the early part of the season, and did he think it may have contributed to his injury?

“I wondered about it,” O’Neal said. “But after looking at it on film, I don’t think the knee brace would have made a difference. I try not to second guess myself.”

Instead, O’Neal said, he tries to think of how Winslow and Warner have come back.

“It seems like Curt is running better than ever,” O’Neal said. “I wouldn’t mind getting a little faster.”

Charger Notes

Gene Upshaw, NFL Players Assn. executive director, was in San Diego Wednesday for a routine meeting with Charger players. Upshaw makes two trips through the league each season. The possibility of a strike during the 1987 NFL season was a key topic of conversation. “The option is there,” Upshaw said. But it’s not something we’re preaching. It’s too early to try to determine what the feeling is. We want to let the negotiation process work.” Upshaw said the primary areas of concern in negotiations are free agency, the pension plan, arbitration and a drug testing policy. “We have to have some form of free agency,” Upshaw said. “We’re not going to have any drug policy forced down our throats similar to what they tried to do earlier in the year.” When asked about how serious a possible strike was, Charger kicker Rolf Benirschke said: “Real serious. The possibility of a strike is there. It’s not a play thing. This is a business. But I hope there’s not a strike. Having gone through it, it’s such a difficult time.”