Buzzard’s Luck : Hawkins Hopes Knee Injury Is Last of Bad Breaks

Bill Hawkins is a free agent. Free to listen to bids for his services. Free to posture and bargain. Free to cut his own deal.

So, does he spend his days holed up with his agent, planning strategies and weighing the awesome possibilities?

Not exactly . . .

Hawkins spends much of his time in a North Palm Beach rehabilitation center pumping away at the Biodex machine that is helping to strengthen the right knee that was surgically reconstructed last November.

And he doesn’t even need to turn on his answering machine because nobody’s calling.

Ah, free at last.

At least he’s still employed. Hawkins’ $350,000-a-year contract with the Rams expired after last season, and the Rams made a qualifying offer--a 10% increase--for 1993. That means a team would have to give the Rams a first-round pick--because Hawkins was drafted in the first round in 1989--in compensation for signing him.

“Nobody has called so far, and I doubt anyone will show any interest,” Hawkins said. “I’m in a pretty sticky situation as far as free agency goes. Having had the surgery, I don’t think anyone would give up a first-round pick when the knee is still a question mark.

“It’s not a question mark for me. I’m sure the knee will be fine. For somebody on the outside, though, it probably seems like too drastic of a chance to take.”

Ram defensive coordinator George Dyer says Hawkins has “buzzard’s luck,” but even a bird of prey has his day. Hawkins has been down and out more often than a middle-aged club fighter.

He tore up his left knee after 13 games of his rookie season and played sporadically the following season. He spent 10 weeks on injured reserve in 1991 due to rib and back injuries.

Last season, Hawkins was penciled in at the right defensive end spot and did everything but drool when talking about the chance to line up next to rookie Sean Gilbert. Then he strained his calf on the first day of training camp. Later, he tore the calf muscle during the first exhibition game against Seattle.

By the second week of the season, however, Hawkins was off injured reserve and in the starting lineup. Things were finally looking up.

Less than two months later, he was lying on the turf at Anaheim Stadium, clutching his knee and looking up as his football life passed before his eyes.

OK, it was a short highlight film.

“I was very bummed,” he said, “and I was contemplating quitting.”

A decade ago, retirement would not have been an option. It would have been a requirement.

“Ten years ago, we didn’t think a player could come back from that,” Ram trainer Jim Anderson said. “It’s basically the same injury Marcus Dupree had, and we just didn’t have the procedures to repair the ligament that we do now.”

Dr. John Uribe, the team physician at the University of Miami, where Hawkins was a semifinalist for the Lombardi Trophy, reconstructed Hawkins’ anterior cruciate ligament and repaired his lateral meniscus cartilage. It’s an operation that sometimes requires up to 12 months of rehabilitation.

Hawkins has been at it just three months, and he thinks his luck has finally changed.

“I was really down about it for a while, but it’s crazy the way this knee has come along,” Hawkins said. “The leg is still weak from lack of work because of the down time, but the right knee feels better than the other one does sometimes. It’s unbelievable. It never hurts.

“And that’s really raised my spirits.”

Pete Draovitch, the physical therapist who is supervising Hawkins’ rehabilitation, says that while no one is planning an article for the medical journals on this recovery, he does believe Hawkins is ahead of schedule.

“He is doing exceptionally well,” Draovitch said. “What he reports to you subjectively, I’m seeing objectively in the amounts of weights he’s doing and the length of time he’s able to work out.”

Hawkins will fly to the West Coast this weekend to check in with Anderson and see senior club physician Dr. Clarence Shields.

“When he gets out there, they’ll be very pleased,” Draovitch said.

Anderson says the Rams always try to encourage injured players who live in the area to rehabilitate at Rams Park, but in the case of a player such as Hawkins--who is single and lives in Coconut Grove, Fla., near his parents’ house in Miami--it is common for him to undergo treatment near their homes.

Draovitch thinks it’s a wise decision.

“I work with a lot of baseball players, too, and I think with most pro teams, it’s usually the players’ choice when it comes to who does the surgery and where he wants to rehab,” Draovitch said. “Most guys want to be with their families, and that’s important. You’re going to have good days and bad days, and having a strong support group can keep you going and speed rehabilitation.”

Hawkins has been buoyed by support from family and friends, but he got a real boost when the Rams made the qualifying offer.

“I don’t know if I was surprised, but I was very happy about it,” Hawkins said. “Everybody wants to be wanted.”

The Rams liked the little they saw last year and are expecting more of the same from Hawkins in 1993.

“You’ve got a good repair there and the knee is very stable and solid,” Coach Chuck Knox said. “I see no reason why he can’t come back and pick up right where he left off, which is playing the best defensive end that he has played since he’s been with the Rams.”

Clearly, Hawkins appeared to have found his niche. After bouncing between defensive end spots and being used as a weakside tackle, Hawkins was set as the starting right end. Next to him was the 315-pound Gilbert. And Hawkins, who played abreast of Cortez Kennedy and the late Jerome Brown at Miami, knows how to take advantage of lining up alongside a dominant tackle.

In October against San Francisco, Hawkins had three solo tackles, a sack and knocked down a pass. Two weeks later against the Giants, he recorded the same statistics.

And two weeks later, he was being helped from the field, his season over.

“I’m just Mr. Bad Luck, I guess, but I really feel like that has changed,” Hawkins said. “It’s one thing to say, ‘Shoot, I was getting revved up and going really good and damn it, I got hurt again.’

“But it’s another to say, ‘Hey, at least I got there, and I’m really happy with the way I was playing.’ I still have a good attitude. The knee is coming back incredibly well. So I don’t see anything hindering me from attaining that level again.”

That’s what the Rams are hoping, and Anderson says the team’s medical staff is confident that Hawkins’ recovery is “definitely on schedule.”

“We expect he’ll be back by the first of August,” Anderson said.

Hawkins, who had similar surgery on his left knee, says he may have a pleasant surprise for them.

“I hurt the other knee, and I know how that one progressed,” he said. “This is just a completely different creature. It’s healing much faster and much better.

“I just started running last week, and the knee has responded really well. I’m able to work out five, even six days a week with no pain or swelling. Hopefully, by the beginning of the season, I’ll be 100% and ready to kick some butt again.”

And if his fortunes haven’t changed, he’ll probably stub his toe.