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Stitching only held the ligament together and never allowed shoulder pad to the knee or the slight rotation caused by a it to fully heal. Because cleat sticking in a clump of grass, a full the knee joint is bathed in ACL tear always has the same brutal “He guillotined his synovial fluid, blood never result. “It looks like a hand grenade with the notch of the reached the ligament and the went off inside the knee joint,” Dr. thigh bone catching it just bond was never reformed. Andrews said, describing the typical warright,” Dr. Andrews said of The use of carbon fiber torn terrain he sees once he gets the “It doesn’t parts led to the eventual arthroscope inside. “There are strands take much sometimes, migration of carbon fiber of ligament tissue just stranded, sort of just an awkward little particles to the lymph nodes. flicking around all over the place and They may have done If migration of the particles there’s blood everywhere.” that same maneuver thouwent unchecked, patients sands of times and all of Most of the time, a player visiting could be poisoned. Prosthetic Dr. Andrews at the Alabama Sports a sudden they catch it.” ligaments offered the most Medicine and Orthopaedic Center can hope to solving the problem, have his career extended. In 1985, Dr. but eventually proved too stiff and, over the years, eventually Andrews operated on what was then Roger Clemens’ “beat broke, Dr. Andrews said, like a metal coat hanger that up” rotator cuff. The rest, quite literally, is history. “Let me tell had been bent back and forth too many times. “I’ve got you, if you have the opportunity to take care of a superstar a few prosthetic ligaments that I put in during the 70’s athlete with good genetics, they can make you look awfully that I’m still following and they’ve continued to work,” good as a doctor,” Dr. Andrews said. “So I wouldn’t take all ACL McNabb. step. that credit. … But I learned a long time ago that the only results you remember are your bad ones and I’ve had some that didn’t work. I’ve had some where their career was ended. You’ve got to know that when you’re in a career-saving operation that you’re not always going to be successful. And the player has got to know that, too. You’ve got to go hand in hand with him.” While Dr. Andrews’ patient A-list stretches from Jack Nicklaus to Drew Brees and his surgery volume reaches a seemingly impossible 1,200 per year, his accumulated knowledge came at the price of years of failed procedures during the 1970’s, a largely experimental era in ligament reconstruction. During this period, Andrews and his colleagues tried a number of unproven procedures to directly repair the ACL. These procedures included stitches, the use of carbon fiber pieces and the use of prosthetic ligaments. he said. “But 90 percent of them didn’t continue to work … and so all that was abandoned.” Finally, a procedure was developed using a live ligament graft from the mid one third of the patella tendon, the long tendon that attaches the knee-cap to the shin bone. This procedure and the advent of the arthroscope, the tube-like fiber optic instrument that makes minimally invasive surgery possible, have proven to be the two most significant “It looks like a breakthroughs in ACL reconstruction in the hand last 30 years. Dr. Andrews played a large part went off inside the in the development of both and has done knee joint,” as much as anyone on the planet to perfect the process. Today, he can finish most ACL —Dr. Andrews reconstructions in about an hour. grenade Dr. Andrews said he sees a day coming soon, perhaps within the next decade, when doctors will be able to pull genetically engineered ligaments off a shelf and be able to put them into the human body. Growing knowledge of such ongoing experiments and rumor of Dr. Andrews’ abilities as a miracle 86 Full All Out BLITZ

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BLITZ Magazine Demo Publisher’s Letter Legends of the Fall: Jim Brown Pre-Game Safety Warning The History of Fantasy Football Phoenix Rising Miracle Worker The Real Jerry Maguire: How Leigh Steinberg Revolutionized the Role of Football Agents Who Is the Big Kid? Post Game

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