ON THE ATTACK : After Months of Recovery From Surgery, Rams’ Collins Is Ready to Start Hitting
Don’t expect to see Ram linebacker Jim Collins swooshing down the slopes of your local ski resort anytime in the 21st Century.
He has already reserved those years for the lounge chair and the propping up of his right knee, the one where cartilage once roamed.
No football player, brave as he may sound, wants to live out his golden years in the same way as Jim Otto, the former Raider center whose knees are a crisscross of surgical scars, thanks to football.
“Don’t remind me of that,” Collins said before Wednesday’s practice, “or I’ll end up going back in and taking my (uniform) pants off.”
But for Collins, and most players like him, the future rarely extends beyond this week. And this week, Collins is back, having spent 3 1/2 long months on injured reserve after knee surgery Aug. 12.
This time, surgeons removed painful bone spurs that were rubbing against an arthritic knee long devoid of cartilage.
“I had it taken out my rookie year (1981),” Collins said. “I’ve been playing all along on it. I’d rather have some cartilage in there, to be honest with you.”
All things considered, Collins, 30, says he feels great. He was eligible to come off injured reserve weeks ago, and he wondered privately why he wasn’t activated. Maybe the Rams were ready to unload him as damaged goods.
“A lot of things go through your mind,” he said. “That was one of them, yeah.”
At his best, in 1985, Collins was one of the game’s best inside linebackers, a big hitter with speed to match. In fact, his football life hasn’t been the same since he made the Pro Bowl that season.
“It was the worst thing that ever happened to me,” Collins said, laughing.
In that game, Collins injured a nerve in his shoulder tackling Marcus Allen, knocking Collins out for the 1986 season.
He returned to play in all 15 games last season but was slowed noticeably by what turned out to be spurs that jingle-jangled in his right knee. Last summer, surgery was suggested. Collins’ career lay on the operating table.
“Going into surgery, they said there was a 50-50 chance your joint’s totally shot,” he said. “They said then there’s nothing we can do. But the joint wasn’t any worse, and the fact that the bone spur was there causing all the irritation was a good sign. Then it was just a matter of rehabilitating it, which took the time.”
Collins said he was ready to return before the first New Orleans game Oct. 30. But the Rams strung him along slowly. Privately, coaches weren’t convinced that Collins’ knee would ever be the same. It took Collins a month on the practice field in full pads to prove otherwise.
After weeks of rumors about his return, Collins finally got the official word from Coach John Robinson this week.
“He looks good to me,” Robinson said. “He looks good and he looks confident. I think a linebacker dragging a knee sometimes just doesn’t go up and in there. So much of the linebacker position is attacking, particularly with his skill. And if you’re scared to go into those piles, subconsciously, you tend to float along behind them.”
Another problem was finding room on the roster for Collins, who had lost his starting spot to Mark Jerue. But bad knees being what they are, this figured to be the week.
Jerue, coming off major knee surgery of his own last year, has been battling soreness all season.
“Jerue’s hurting,” defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur said. “Even more than normal.”
So it was time for Collins to step in. He had spent enough time standing around.
“We just want to get him back playing,” Robinson said. “Hopefully at a high level. He’s become quite confident about his knee. It was just ‘Hey, let’s get you back in there.’ He might play really good and be a powerful influence for us the next month.”
Collins won’t worry about the price tag on his future. That’s weeks from now. What’s more important than Denver?
“Obviously, anytime you play football, later on in life some things are going to bother you,” he said. “It’s something you have to live with. I’m not really worried about that. I don’t think I’ll be doing anything when I’m 50 years old, like skiing or anything. But I can still do a lot of things.”
And isn’t it amazing what you can do without bone spurs?
“The knee is stable,” he said. “It’s not like I have a loose knee. . . . I don’t know what’s going to happen. It feels good now. I’ve been practicing hard on it, and it hasn’t given me any problems. I don’t have a perfect knee; I never will. But I don’t think it’s to the point where it will limit me playing, at least at the present time.”
Collins sees this as a fresh start on fresh wheels.
“I got fresh legs,” he said. “My knee will ache sometimes, but everyone’s got aches. But the bone spur got to the point where every time I ran, it rubbed on there and was causing too much pain. But there’s a million guys playing that have some arthritis in their joints here and there. And they are able to overcome that.”
Ram Notes
Linebacker Mel Owens (ankle) is out again for Sunday’s game against the Broncos at Denver, although he may be back next week for the Monday night game against Chicago. Linebacker Mark Jerue (knee) and safety Michael Stewart (shoulder) are questionable, and cornerback LeRoy Irvin is probable with a back injury. . . . For Denver, linebacker Bruce Klostermann (back) and tackle Keith Kartz (toe) will miss Sunday’s game. Receiver Ricky Nattiel (ankle) and guard Keith Bishop (foot/thumb) are listed as doubtful. . . . To make room for linebacker Jim Collins on the roster, the Rams probably will place tight end Jon Embree on injured reserve with a leg injury.
