Yo thought I read he had it after the Illy game, but it looks like it happened right before the Illy game
Two Sundays ago, Eric Decker hopped out of bed in a cheery mood, a day after tying a school record with 13 receptions in the University of Minnesota's 16-7 victory over Indiana, but his roommate wasn't looking so hot.
The star wide receiver was shocked when he saw Adam Weber, the quarterback responsible for making his career day and career year possible, looking pale and feeling immense pain from a swollen right knee — the same knee that was hyperextended on the opening drive against the Hoosiers.
Decker couldn't help but think the worst.
"I was a little nervous," said Decker, who had a career-best 190 receiving yards in the game. "I thought it was his ACL or something. He said like, 'Ow, I can't walk.' I said, 'What, do you want me to carry you?' "
Turns out the knee injury wasn't as bad as it seemed.
Weber had arthroscopic surgery to repair a meniscus tear on Oct. 5, and just six days later, he led Minnesota to its biggest victory in years, 27-20 over Illinois in Champaign, Ill. Weber was a bit less mobile and wore a knee brace, but his quick recovery helped the Gophers win their second Big Ten Conference game and improve to 6-1 to become bowl eligible.
"I knew there was no other way I could play football if I didn't have this procedure done," said Weber, who completed 18 of 26 passes for 184 yards and a touchdown Saturday. "It was scary, but I talked to my dad and I talked to my family, and once we made the decision, I was
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like, 'All right, let's do this.' "
Decker, who played through a sprained shoulder against Illinois, said the Gophers were inspired by Weber's play, and compared his durability to that of former Packers and current New York Jets quarterback Brett Favre.
"He's a tough guy," Decker said. "He was ready to go Saturday, and he looked good. Obviously, he was hurting, but he made sure he got the job done."
THE INJURY
Bob Weber cringed when he saw his son fall awkwardly after being slammed down on a sack by 265-pound Indiana defensive end Jammie Kirlew on third and goal of the game's opening drive.
Sitting with other parents near the Metrodome end zone, Weber's father had a clear view of the ferocious hit and could see that Adam's knee had been hyperextended, but he didn't know how bad it was.
"I thought, 'Oh no, what happened?' " he said. "I was watching the whole time, hoping it wasn't too serious. I saw him walking the sideline and warming up on the stationary bike before he went back in. I could tell he wasn't quite himself. There was a little something wrong."
It sure didn't seem like it as Adam Weber passed for 274 yards, but the knee started to swell up after the game
when the adrenaline was gone — Weber was walking with a limp as he left the Dome.
After a sleepless Saturday night, Weber's knee locked up on him the next morning and he couldn't walk. A magnetic resonance imaging exam Sunday afternoon confirmed he had a meniscus tear in his right knee that needed surgery. Two hours later, he was taken to the University of Minnesota's Fairview Hospital, where team doctor Pat Smith took 14 minutes to perform a meniscectomy, the surgical removal of torn meniscus cartilage.
The tear was only three millimeters long, which meant a speedy recovery was possible.
"It's not anything huge," said Weber, who has two tiny holes where the incisions were made, "but any time you're sticking things in your knee... You don't want to do it unless you have to."
Dr. Michael J. D'Amato, a specialist in sports knee injuries for HealthPartners in St. Paul, said an athlete who suffers a small meniscus tear like Weber's benefits greatly from having surgery "as soon as possible" or risks making it worse by ripping it further.
D'Amato said the fastest he had a football player return from meniscus surgery was a week, but others have taken as long as three to four weeks.
"It's all about trying to get the tissue to heal," he said. "It's not a question of the knee being unstable. The ligament is sound. It's a combination of factors; the main ones are the motivational level and the pain level. Everybody reacts different to surgery."
THE RECOVERY
Weber did some passing on Monday, the day after surgery, but he said he was feeling pretty sore moving around. He practiced for a half-hour that Tuesday but described it as "bad." He couldn't do very much and still had to ice down his knee.
"It was one of those things where I knew every day it would get better, but it was frustrating," he said. "Wednesday, I did a little bit more. Finally, Thursday, I did the whole complete practice. I wasn't 100 percent, but I knew by Saturday I could be."
Having a strong support staff for Weber's rehabilitation made his parents feel more at ease. His mother, Debbie, recalled driving down to the hospital "like a maniac" to pick him up Sunday night after the surgery, but she said she was less stressed the following week — partly because Bob, a family practice physician and former Gophers player, was checking on their son often.
"I talked to Adam every day last week to make sure he was doing OK," Bob Weber said. "He said he was fine. The pain was pretty much going away."
Gophers coach Tim Brewster, who first addressed the team about Adam Weber's injury last Thursday, was impressed with Weber's progression, but he didn't want the quarterback to rush the ball often. Backups Mike Maciejowski and Tony Mortensen also got more reps, and a trick play was used against Illinois, where Weber lined up at receiver and freshman cornerback Troy Stoudermire took the snap.
"Obviously, we wanted to take care of Adam," Brewster said. "We didn't want to get him too much work, but it wasn't that Adam couldn't take the reps. Adam was ready to go. Pretty amazing how he bounced back, but we certainly also have to have other guys prepared."
After getting through the week of practice without any setbacks, Weber's next challenge was testing his surgically repaired knee against a talented Illinois team. The biggest step was making it through the first drive, and it went as well as he could have imagined, ending with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Decker.
That erased any doubts.
"
I would say it was a game-time decision for myself," said Weber, who expects to be 100 percent for the Oct. 25 game at Purdue after the bye week. "Obviously, Coach wanted me to play, but I knew if I couldn't go, I would be hurting this team. Going out there and being able to drive the ball down without any problems was huge."
opcorn:
