Karsatos Hopes His Roller Coaster Football Career Isn’t Over

Jim Karsatos is feeling a bit down these days, but he’s not worried. He figures things will be looking up soon. After all, he’s used to this. He’s only 25, but he already has ridden the Ninja of emotional roller coasters.

He’s on the Way Up: Karsatos’ career at Sunny Hills High School is a steady climb to a heady peak. He’s a good student, active in school government, plays basketball and football and dates the prettiest girls in school. He becomes the starting quarterback as a junior and sets the Orange County single-season passing yardage record as a senior, earning The Times’ Orange County Back of the Year honors. Heck, he even wins the Southern Section coed badminton doubles title as a senior.

He’s at the Top: Sixty-two Division I schools offer Karsatos a football scholarship. He narrows his choice to USC and Ohio State, and decides to become a Buckeye when Sean Salisbury chooses the Trojans. He is going to play quarterback in a place where young men who lead the Buckeyes to victory are not just admired. They are worshipped.

The Plummet Begins: On June 22, 1981, during the second quarter of the Orange County All-Star football game, Karsatos is hit from the blind side and leaves the game with a “minor knee strain.”

He’s Upside Down: Three days later, Karsatos wakes up in Centinela Hospital after Dr. Lewis Yocum had performed surgery to repair ligament damage in his right knee. Yocum’s associate, Dr. Robert Kerlan, tells Karsatos he probably will have to give up football. During the 10 days he spends in the hospital, Karsatos is deeply depressed. “I was so down, I wouldn’t even talk to anyone on the phone,” he says. “It was horrible.”

A Turn for the Better: Karsatos discovers that--despite the fact he played in the All-Star game against the advice of Coach Earle Bruce-- he still has a scholarship to Ohio State. His knee responds better than anticipated. He will play football again. He starts attending classes at Ohio State. He’s homesick, but he sticks it out and waits for his chance.

On the Rise Again: As a sophomore, Karsatos starts two games at quarterback in place of the injured Mike Tomczak. As a junior, he throws for 2,311 yards, completing at least one touchdown pass in 10 games (19 in all) and finishes fifth in the nation in passing efficiency (61.9%). Bruce pulls in the reins slightly during Karsatos’ senior year, opting for a more conservative offense, but Karsatos still throws for 2,122 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Hang On for the Drop: Karsatos, a lot of friends and media await the news on National Football League draft day. As far as Karsatos is concerned, there is no news. “The TV crews gave up and left after they got their lunch,” he recalls. “I was expecting to go in the fourth to seventh round. By the afternoon, they were picking (quarterbacks) I’d never heard of. Oh, man, it was frustrating . . . really nerve-racking.” When the call finally comes--at 2 a.m.--Karsatos is the only one awake. He had been selected on the 12th round by the Miami Dolphins and is instructed to report to minicamp the next day. “I thought I’d get two weeks or so and I wasn’t in shape,” he says. Karsatos has never been described as wiry, but the 6-foot 3-inch quarterback weighs in at 240. Conditioning fanatic Don Shula is less than impressed.

Climbing Up: Karsatos whips himself into shape and shows up a lithe 218-pounder for the opening of training camp. “Shula liked that,” he says, “and I did a real good job in camp.”

Here We Go Again: In the second quarter of the Dolphins’ first exhibition game last season, Karsatos scrambles out of the pocket and catches his left foot in the turf. His left knee twists, the Bears’ Otis Wilson hits him from behind and he ends up in surgery again. The rehabilitation on his left knee progresses slowly, but he manages to get himself semi-ready for minicamp this year. But the Dolphins have drafted a quarterback (Kerwin Bell) and brought in a veteran quarterback (David Archer). The writing is on the wall. Before the first exhibition game, Miami cuts Karsatos.

It’s been a stomach-churner, to be sure. At least he’s not bitter. Well, maybe a little . . .

“Yeah, I’m depressed,” Karsatos said from his home in Miami during a recent telephone interview. “I really like the team and I was starting to get a lot of close friends here. I think I could help the team down the line.

“I guess they think Kerwin Bell will be the Don Strock (Dan Marino’s longtime backup) of the future. Bell’s got a goody-goody attitude, but he’s not that talented. When they released me, they said the knee surgery had hurt my mobility. I wonder if they’ve seen Bell run. He’s not very mobile.”

You’ll have to excuse Karsatos for being catty. It’s usually not his style. But the down cycles on this ride are getting tedious.

“You know, I’m bored as much as I am depressed,” he said. “I haven’t done much but play a few rounds of golf since they cut me. I was running for a couple of weeks, but it’s tough when there’s no motivation. I’ve got to get busy. I’m going to move back to Ohio or California and find a job.”

Karsatos, a communications major at Ohio State, spent two summers working internships at television station WBNS in Columbus. He’s not looking for a career, however. He’s looking for a stopgap paycheck, a good facility where he can regain the strength in his left knee . . . and another chance in the NFL.

Karsatos realizes his chances of being picked up at this point in the season are very slim. And although injuries always create openings, backup quarterbacks with very little experience (five plays in one exhibition game) aren’t in much demand.

“I haven’t given up yet,” he said, “but I’m thinking that my best chance is next year. Hopefully, my agent can find a team that I can help next season and I can start from scratch in mini-camp.

“I’m going to keep trying. I look at some of these guys still in the league and, well . . . I watch these games on TV and say, ‘God darn, get me back in there!’ ”

Karsatos has decided to step off the roller coaster for a while, however. He’s giving up the high-speed thrills for a more serene attraction. He’s taking his girlfriend to a remote lake in Tennessee for a few weeks of fishing, water skiing and just plain relaxing.

“I should have gone there two weeks ago,” he said, managing a chuckle. “It’s a big lake with nobody on it. It’ll give me a chance to think.”

Not to mention letting his stomach settle.