Rams' Jerue Expected to Play Sunday After Comeback From Knee Surgery

Rams’ Jerue Expected to Play Sunday After Comeback From Knee Surgery

By CHRIS DUFRESNE

Oct. 19, 1989 12 AM PT

Ram linebacker Mark Jerue, moved to the active roster Wednesday, is expected to play Sunday against the New Orleans Saints at Anaheim. That makes his comeback one of the more remarkable ones in National Football League history.

Jerue, a six-year veteran who made 109 tackles in 1986, underwent surgery last February, during which Dr. Clarence Shields opened Jerue’s left knee for the third time in two years. The operation was meant to get Jerue walking again, not playing again.

There were four holes, the size of quarters, where cartilage had worn through to the bone.

Shields told Jerue his chances of playing again were less than 50-50.

In May, Jerue still couldn’t run 10 yards, but he began working with Garrett Giemont, Ram strength trainer. Now he’s ready to play. Making room for Jerue, the Rams put cornerback Alfred Jackson on injured reserve with a groin injury.

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Chris Dufresne

Chris Dufresne was the Los Angeles Times’ national college football/basketball columnist from 1995 to 2015. He also covered skiing at the Winter Olympics and wrote extensively on most sports. He is a multiple national award winner and was named 2011 California Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Assn. A Los Angeles native, he started at The Times in 1976 as a truck loader and literally worked his way up (two floors to be exact).