Damaging week sheds light on football's dark injury side

Adam Gunn can't wait to get back on the field.

This is the same Pittsburgh linebacker who was knocked unconscious in the season opener against Bowling Green. Waking up in the locker room with tremendous pain in his neck was the luckiest thing that could have happened, as it turned out. When doctors found the crack in his C-5 vertebrae they told him he was less than a centimeter away from being paralyzed.

WSU QB Gary Rogers was taken off the field in an ambulance after a non-surgical spine fracture. (AP)

Stories immediately broke that the fifth-year senior's career was over. After undergoing surgery eight days ago to repair that broken neck, Gunn is suddenly not so sure. Despite a fracture of the anterior cervical spine, he wants back in. Gunn says he will petition the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility in 2009.

"If the doctor says I'll be fine, I trust what he has to say," Gunn said. "I love the game that much. Not to say it defines my life, but it does."

That's why Gunn was tempted to contact Washington State quarterback Gary Rogers this week. Rogers was one of three players carted off the field Saturday with head, neck and/or spine trauma. Rogers and Ball State receiver Dante Love had their careers ended. South Florida linebacker Brouce Mompremier will miss at least two games after his head collided with a teammate.

Upon reflection, it was one the darkest, most debilitating days in recent college football history. If they're lucky, Rogers, Mompremier and Love will end up at the bottom of the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research annual report.

That's where you will find a box labeled "Catastrophic Injuries 2007, complete recovery," in the massive report overseen by North Carolina Ph.D. Frederick Mueller, who annually tracks every catastrophic football injury from sandlot to the NFL.

In that report, there were seven college players all of last year with significant head or spine injuries who made complete recoveries. The aforementioned three similar injuries occurred in one day last week.

Should three in one day raise some flags, or is it just football as usual?

"It's a little bit of both," Ball State coach Brady Hoke said. "It's a part of football and it's the part no one likes. It's the ugly part of it. When you see any young man go down at all, your heart sinks."

The injury to Love might be the most serious. Love was leading the nation in receiving when he collided with Indiana's Chris Adkins. After lying motionless on the field, Love was taken to a hospital and underwent surgery for a spine fracture. He is expected to lead a normal life after rehabilitation. He could move his arms and legs on Monday.

Mompremier was airlifted to a nearby hospital before being released Sunday.

Rogers' injury was most similar to Gunn's. The senior backup quarterback suffered a non-surgical spine fracture after being hit by a Portland State player.