Planet Rams

By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

It’s been a little more than one month since Rams running back Steven Jackson had surgery on the herniated disc in his back.

With an initial diagnosis of a six to eight week recovery time, Jackson is right about the halfway mark of his recovery. Speaking for the first time since the surgery on Tuesday, Jackson says all is going as planned in his rehabilitation.

“The back feels really good,” Jackson said. “I’m fine. I’m doing good. Now, like I said, it’s just going back to getting my core stronger and my back muscles.”

As the Rams kicked off their Organized Team Activities on Tuesday afternoon, Jackson was one of a handful of players unable to participate. That was to be expected since Jackson just had his surgery on April 15.

But as Jackson goes through his rehab, there’s an air of confidence that he’ll be back sooner than later and could potentially even participate in some OTAs toward the end of the schedule.

“We’re hoping to get some OTAs at the end, but not going to push anything,” Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo said. “We’re going to tread lightly.  He’s done great.  He’s been out there, he’s been in the pool, he’s been rehabbing.  He’s done everything you can do except for be out here and do the football, but we’ll basically, I hate to sound redundant, but we’ll go day to day on that.”

The day to day approach with Jackson’s back has been something that has been in place since Jackson first suffered the injury way back in November of 2009.

Given the gift of hindsight, Jackson says he now sees the full picture. Initially, some presumed Jackson suffered the injury on one play but Jackson says he felt fine even as he went to bed after the Arizona game back then.

“I guess you could say I just woke up Monday morning and I just all of a sudden had a back problem,” Jackson said. “It’s just one of those things that you continue to nurse it, continue to rehab it. We knew with it being the middle of the season, it was impossible really for us to allow it to heal, so it was something that, once again all my calls, all my decisions. I continued to play with it and continued to try to lead my team.”

Indeed, Jackson proved any naysayers wrong with his insistence on playing through the pain he had in his back. That pain included nerve damage that Jackson says was the most painful part of the injury.

Jackson played five of the final six games despite the injury and continued to post impressive numbers despite his condition. Jackson finished with 1,416 rushing yards and four touchdowns to go with 51 receptions for 322 yards.

“It was really tough,” Jackson said. “Going back and looking at the film, it was just certain moves and certain plays that I couldn’t make that I normally could make. The pain, it was there. It was something that I can’t say wasn’t there.  It was there all the way until the surgery. It’s a different type of pain, though. Muscle pain, I’ve been able to deal with that, but nerve pain, it’s just something that just doesn’t go away. Anyone that has a back issue or back problems know that it’s a different monster.”

While missing practice and playing through pain was physically daunting for Jackson, it also allowed him to prove something to himself. Perhaps a scary thought for opponents is Jackson actually believes playing through the injury will make him a tougher, better player overall.

“Yes, because I’m healthy again,” Jackson said. “It will make me a better running back. And, two, I proved a lot to myself that… I always kind of prided myself on playing with pain, but now I’ve taken my body to another level.”

Upon the completion of the 2009 season, Jackson opted to sit out the Pro Bowl and try to rest and rehab the back without opting for surgery.

Jackson believed the rest would help the back heal and he’d get back to being at full strength around this time so he could participate in all of the offseason activities.

But the pain never dissipated and Jackson decided to shop around and get opinions from various doctors about whether or not to have surgery.

According to Jackson, none of the three doctors definitively recommended surgery but he took all of the information in and opted to have it done.

“The surgery really was up to me,” Jackson said. “I decided to have the surgery because I was still in the grey area on needing the surgery and not going with the surgery…looking at the season and being able to fully recover from the injury and a being able to go for training camp, April was kind of the deadline so that I could have a full recovery in June and have six solid weeks to get ready for training camp, then training camp all the way to September 12th for the Arizona Cardinals.”

At this stage in his rehab, Jackson says he is capable of doing all kinds of twisting, bending and turning that he could normally do. Now, the idea is to strengthen his core and his back to the point that when he comes back he will be at full strength.

Based on Jackson’s timeline, he believes he will be up to speed and able to go through his normal, rigorous summer training. In his rehab, he has done a lot of pool work and focused on maintaining his conditioning so he won’t get easily winded upon his return.
No matter when he returns, Jackson says nothing will change in his approach to the game. In fact, when Jackson was asked Tuesday what his biggest challenge will be when he gets back, he said he doesn’t think in terms of that type of thing.