RUSH JOB

Two seasons ago, Atlanta vs. Denver was the Super Bowl matchup.

Now it’s the Knee Bowl.

Torn knee ligaments ended the 1999 seasons of the Broncos’ Terrell Davis and the Falcons’ Jamal Anderson, and the same injury claimed the Broncos’ Olandis Gary Monday night against St. Louis.

The good news is that a torn anterior cruciate ligament is no longer the career-threatening--or even career-ending--injury it once was.

But a leading sports orthopedist said that even if a player comes back as quickly as Davis and Anderson have, the first season is too soon to expect a return to his old form--especially for an NFL running back.

“With the rehab, it’s really two years until you get the real deal,” said James Andrews, the Birmingham, Ala., orthopedist who treats many top professional athletes but did not perform the surgeries on Anderson or Davis, who is questionable for today’s game against the Falcons after spraining an ankle against the Rams Monday night.

“The first season back, they’re trying to make up for the injury and prove they can play,” said Andrews, who operated on the knees of Keith Byars, Ki-Jana Carter and James Stewart, among others. “You can do things, you just won’t do them as fluidly.”

Though it might be coincidence in this case, Davis’ ankle injury raises another issue, one Andrews brought up before the season.

“There’s a danger of injury, because the player is not concentrating on the game. He’s distracted, thinking about the knee,” Andrews said. “It’s like when you have to park across the street and are going somewhere and walk out in front of a car.”

Davis and Anderson, the NFL’s leading rushers in 1998, have a friendly wager to see who comes back strongest.

Davis--who in 1998 become only the fourth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards--opened his comeback with 34 yards in nine carries before twisting his ankle.

Anderson--who rushed for 1,846 yards in an NFL-record 410 carries in ‘98--opened with 77 yards in 24 carries against San Francisco.

“So he better hurry up, man,” Anderson said. “He better be ready to play this week because I’m going to hopefully get a slight advantage on him.”

The Falcons and Broncos have taken similar approaches with the running backs, easing them back with limited carries.

Neither had as many as 10 carries in a game during the exhibition season, and each had a target of about 20 in the first regular-season game. Slow and steady, goes the thinking.

“I really don’t think it’s 100%, but I don’t really have a problem doing anything I want to do in the course of the game,” Anderson said. “It’s well enough that nothing is stopping me from either spinning or cutting when I want to cut, or running as hard as I need to run.”

Denver Coach Mike Shanahan said his gut feeling is Davis will be able to play today, though it will be a game-day decision.

Davis said the knee injury was uncharted territory, but he knows how to play on a sore ankle.

“That’s the good thing about an ankle. If you stay on top of it and just continue to work on it, sometimes the recovery is a lot quicker than expected,” Davis said.

The days when a serious knee injury was a death knell for a running back’s career are history, though medical developments were too late for Gale Sayers or Billy Sims.

It’s only in the past 10 years or so that the introduction of an arthroscopic technique for ACL surgery and a well-tuned rehabilitation program have made quick comebacks routine.

But a glimpse at a few players over the years supports the contention that it often takes a couple of years--and that sometimes knee injuries strike again.

In the 1980s, Curt Warner rushed for 1,449 yards as a rookie for the Seattle Seahawks, then missed all but one game the next season because of knee surgery. His first year back, he barely crossed the 1,000-yard plateau, but the second year, he ran for a career-high 1,481.

Terry Allen hurt his knee as a rookie with the Minnesota Vikings in 1990 and rushed for 563 yards his first season back, then broke through with 1,201 the next year. Allen also missed 1993 because of a knee injury, returning for 1,031 yards in 1994.

Garrison Hearst, injured during his rookie season in 1993, rushed for only 169 yards in his comeback season for the Arizona Cardinals in 1994, then ran for 1,070 the next year.

And Robert Smith rushed for only 106 in 1994 in his return from knee surgery, injured his other knee in 1996 and broke through with 1,266 for the Vikings in 1997.

“In general, once they’re ready to return physically--this is very important--you have about two months of psychological aspects,” Andrews said. “He may be physically ready, but you’ve got to be ready to play football and not think about the knee. And everybody in the world is thinking about his knee--the coach, the fans, the press. He can’t play at a high level when he’s thinking about it or worried about it.”

For a running back, the telling indication is how the player makes cuts.

Watch for deceleration, especially on the most difficult cut, the crossover.

Say a running back plants his surgically repaired left leg, intending to cut right, then sees a tackler or a different hole and crosses over with his right leg to go left.

“They all have trouble with that initially,” Andrews said.

The good news is that two years after the intensive rehabilitation, many players are at the top of their game.

“Some are better than ever,” Andrews said. “With all the extra work and strengthening, they may have more speed.”

Anderson is focused on the here and now.

“For me, a successful game is not being assisted off the field at the end,” he said. “Playing the whole game and having the stamina and strength to complete each and every game. That’s my thing right now.”