Prothro's injury still casting long shadow at Alabama
Tyrone Prothro was always hard to catch. Now he's hard to find.
"I just hung up with him on my cell phone," says Michael Shortt, his coach at Cleburne County (Ala.) High School. "That's hard to believe you called. He's going to be here in 30 minutes."
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| Mike Shula might still be around if not for Tyrone Prothro's injury. (US Presswire) |
Alabama's one-time next great hope is pretty much a ghost these days. You would be too if a gruesome double left-leg fracture snatched your livelihood away. In a game against Florida almost 18 months ago, the junior was carried out of Bryant-Denny Stadium on a gurney. His Alabama teammates took a knee, almost as one, hoping he wasn't done.
Sitting upright, he shook a fist, pointed to the sky and was gone from football.
Forever?
A cable network later gave him an award for the play of the year. Prothro's catch on the back of Southern Miss defender Jasper Faulk is a YouTube staple. It has been immortalized by college football artist Daniel Moore, as his "The Catch" is one of his hottest sellers.
Prothro gained 8,099 all-purpose yards as a receiver/running back/quarterback/etc. at Cleburne County. That's the third-highest total in a state where having the third-highest total means something. Playing "slash" again in college, "Pro" averaged 17 yards every time he touched the ball.
Prothro had speed, charisma. He was a bit of a Moses leading the moribund Tide out of the college football desert. But if he doesn't play this fall it will be 2 1/2 seasons out of action. Prothro would most likely need a waiver from the NCAA to get a sixth year eligibility in 2008.
"He told me he would play, no matter what it takes, his last year," Shortt said.
Les Fowler, the Alabama doctor who performed the surgery, described the injury as an "open comminuted fracture." A comminuted fracture is described as bone that is "broken, splintered or crushed into a number of pieces." Now add the word "open" to that.
An infection set in. There have been whispers that his care was mishandled. When was the last time you heard of a broken leg that required a 26-day hospital stay?
"It looked like a field injury in the war," Shortt said of the initial injury.
