Chris Williams: August 2008 Archives

In his teleconference Sunday evening, general manager Jerry Angelo said repeatedly that if the Bears were trying to cover up news of the herniated disc Chris Wiliams had when he was drafted, they would have muzzled the player.

Looks like the team's public relations staff got to Williams a day late.

Talking Monday afternoon when he came off the field, Williams did a 180 from his candid comments the day before when he said that everyone knew he had a herniated disc when he was drafted. Angelo bristled at criticism received but the Bears never admitted Williams had a herniated disc, the same one that required surgery earlier this month.

Head trainer Tim Bream acknowledged Williams had a pre-existing back condition when the Bears drafted him, but it was a "stable herniation" that was not affecting Williams. There is a long history of players playing with similar conditions and Williams didn't miss time at Vanderbilt.

Williams' Q&A a day later ... notice the difference:

CAN YOU REMARK ON THE COMMENTS MADE SUNDAY?

I mean, there's no comments to be made, any more comments about medical stuff. If you want medical information, you have to talk to Tim or Coach [Lovie] Smith or Mr. Angelo. I'm in rehab now, I've had surgery and I'm getting better.

WERE YOU EVER ASKED BEFORE SUNDAY ABOUT A HERNIATED DISC?

Like I said, I'm not talking about medical stuff anymore. It's just a waste of everybody's time in general. We're playing the Colts in two weeks, we've got the Browns this week and that's what we're focused on as a team.

General manager Jerry Angelo and head trainer Tim Bream conducted a teleconference to go over Chris Williams' back condition and what went into the decision process in selecting him in the draft.

Here are excerpts from Angelo's portion of the call:

JERRY ANGELO

"When Tim went over all this, when we were talking about it with our medical people, obviously the thing that I was concerned with is he's a football player. I'm not talking about the normal, average Joe walking the street. As what Tim said, there are a good number of players playing with this and or worse that we've seen over a period of time. And I use that term wear and tear. We knew that there was wear and tear with Chris. But ultimately what our medical people want, whether it is this type of injury, an ACL, a shoulder injury, how did the player perform post injury? Did Chris complain of back pain? He missed two to three days but he played throughout his whole career. What are the symptoms of a herniation? Repetitive MRI's, which he did not have, missed practice time, missed game time, which he did not have. And symptoms which would create pain running down his extremities and his lower legs, and or numbness in his feet, which he never had. He had none of those symptoms. He had none of those issues prior to us drafting him. When we found the herniation within that 24-hour span, he did have those symptoms. That's what we reacted to. But none of that had anything to do up until that time in terms of what I just said. That's what I want to make clear. It's not that he had any of these symptoms that I just went over when he was in college. He did not. And that's what we went on because players can play with this condition and have.

Here is the interview Chris Williams conducted with three media outlets coming off the practice fields at Halas Hall Sunday afternoon?

HOW DO YOU FEEL?

I feel good. I hope I look good. I feel good.

BECAUSE OF THE SURGERY DO YOU NOT HAVE TO CARRY THE VETERANS' EQUIPMENT OFF THE FIELD?

For now. I'm sure I will make up for it.

WHERE ARE YOU AT IN THE WHOLE DEAL? STILL WAITING FOR STITCHES TO HEAL?

No. The stitches are gone. I started rehab. Doing cardio. Lifting. I'm trying to get back in shape.

WHAT DAY DID YOU START REHAB?

I got the stitches out Thursday so I started this last Thursday. That was like right at the two-week mark.

THERE HAS BEEN A LOT SAID ABOUT THIS INJURY, WHEN IT HAPPENED, YOU'VE READ IT, HEARD IT. WHAT'S TRUE AND WHAT'S NOT TRUE?

It happened the second day of training camp. Something happened. It kind of went downhill in a hurry and so we got it corrected in a hurry. There is nothing there from college. I didn't miss a practice or a game in college. Obviously, if it was something serious because if I could play with it in college I sure as hell could play with it for money.

Chris Williams spoke to the media for the first time since having surgery Aug. 6 and he dropped a bomb shell.

He had a herniated disc when the Bears drafted him with the 14th overall pick in April. The herniated disc is the same one he had surgery to repair after being injured on the second day of training camp, July 24.

"I had a herniated disc before I got here," Williams said. "We knew that. Everyone knew that. It just was a thing where most people it doesn't affect. It wasn't affecting me so if nothing is broke, you don't fix it. Then something happened in practice that second day, the disc started moving and that caused some problems."

Williams aggravated the back injury during a non-contact drill and the team thought (or hoped) it was back spasms for two weeks before determining the exact nature of his problem.

First-round draft pick Chris Williams announced on the team's Web site that he would like to be able to play at least half of the season during his rookie year.

"I'd like to play at least half the season," Williams said Tuesday in a story the team published today.

"It was a shock, but it was also a relief," he also said. "I knew surgery would fix it. It was something that got real bad quick, so I knew that surgery would reverse it just as quick and was excited about it."

Chris Williams can take it from the best left tackle in the history of the organization: don't try to come back too soon from surgery to repair a herniated disc.

Jimbo Covert said a hasty return from surgery to repair a disc in his back in 1988 wound up shortening his career. When back issues came again in 1991, Covert needed a laminectomy, he was forced to retire after eight seasons. He never made another Pro Bowl after the disc surgery.

"I came back and played seven weeks after surgery," Covert said Saturday night at practice. "Which was not smart. To try to come back and play, this is me personally, it shortened my career. That was too soon."

We were waiting for the return of Chris Williams to the practice field to take a look at this information, but with the first-round pick sidelined for the foreseeable future now following surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back, we'll go through it.

Williams, the 14th overall selection, signed a five-year deal with a maximum value of $16 million.

Here is a look at how the numbers break down:

General manager Jerry Angelo spoke briefly following the game about Chris Williams' back surgery Wednesday night to correct a herniated disc in his lower back:

THOUGHTS ON CHRIS WILLIAMS HAVING BACK SURGERY?

Well, you know the good news is we'll get him back in the season, at some point during the season and you know, everything right now is ... we have to wait and see probably for a few weeks and see how the rehab is. We were hoping it was muscular, meaning it was spasms. When they gave him another look they determined it was a herniated disc and so, but the good news is we're going to get him back.

ARE YOU CONFIDENT THERE WAS NO PRE-EXISTING CONDITION WITH HIS BACK?

What the doctors told me, this was a new injury. He had injured his back approximately three years ago. He missed two or three days of practice. He had no symptoms of any kind of herniation when that injury occured. He had no missed time in the last three years so it's a new injury. It's unfortunate.