McMahon Has Surgery--Now It’s Up to Him

Quarterback Jim McMahon of the Chicago Bears underwent shoulder surgery Friday and will spend the weekend in bed, Dr. Frank Jobe said, “with a splint on his shoulder in partial throwing position.”

McMahon is at Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, where Jobe performed the two-hour operation.

The 27-year-old quarterback, who led the Bears to the Super Bowl title last season, was injured in October when he tore his right rotator cuff while throwing.

“There’s no evidence of new damage caused by (Charles Martin’s) hit,” Jobe said after the operation, referring to Martin’s body slam Nov. 23--an illegal blow that brought the Green Bay Packers lineman a two-game suspension.

Whether McMahon makes a full recovery before next season is up to the patient, the surgeon said, adding: “Prognosis at this time is unknown. People who throw need perfect shoulders. . . . Surgery is only half the process. . . . It is up to (McMahon) to rehabilitate himself.”

Jobe added: “My gut feeling is that Jim is going to do it because of his desire to return to the game (and) because I’ve known him since BYU as a hard worker.”

Jobe said it will be three months before McMahon has full range of motion in his shoulder and six months before he can throw the way he must to compete.

The shoulder has been temporarily locked into a throwing position to get the healing process going correctly, Jobe said.

The operation was in two parts. Jobe’s report:

--There was, first, an arthroscopic examination to trim the rotator cuff, a group of four muscles surrounding the main bone of the upper arm at the shoulder junction.

--Noticing at that time that McMahon’s shoulder was unstable--that it had slipped out in front--Jobe also made an incision to reconstruct the front of the shoulder.

The surgeon’s purpose in the second part of the operation was to repair the ball-and-socket joint so that the ball will not slip out of the socket when McMahon throws.

Both problems, the rotator cuff tear and the accompanying instability that caused the clicking noises McMahon heard, have been with him most of the season, since at least October.

McMahon’s injuries have prompted critics to charge that he reported out of condition last summer, after months of post-Super Bowl banqueting.

True or false, there will be no parties this winter.

McMahon’s agent, Steve Zucker of Chicago, said: “Before we came out here (for the surgery), Jim had me cancel most of his off-season appointments. Now we’ll go home and cancel most of the rest while he’s in rehab.

“Anyone who really knows Jim McMahon knows he’ll go at (rehabilitation) until he comes back stronger than before.”