“They did the microdiscectomy, and a lot of the pain was gone because I had sciatica all the way past my knees on both sides. And I just said, ‘I’m going to get back on the field as quick as I can.’ Three days later I was doing stuff, but when I got back on the field after five weeks and put those pads on, it just did not feel good. When I ran, I was afraid to step the wrong way. If I turned the wrong way quickly, my back would tighten up. It was really, really sore. … And then I came back and played six weeks later, I played against Minnesota (in Week 3) and I just wasn’t ready to play at all. I had no business being out on the field. I just thought, ‘Hey, I’ve done this a million times before, I can just get out there and do it.’ No way. Shouldn’t have ever been out there. And then I went on injured reserve for six weeks and was swimming every day and working out every day and doing all of that stuff, so when I came back seven weeks later, we played against Tampa Bay at home and I didn’t start that game. It says 111 games, 110 starts. That was the one game I didn’t start. I played the second and fourth quarters and I felt OK. I just didn’t feel like myself and I started the next week and I started all the rest of the games and the playoffs, but I was never the same after that.
