Post by ccboy on Dec 17, 2009 5:35:03 GMT -7
Man in Training, Jim Maurer, Cowboys trainer
MAN IN TRAINING
From the gruesome to the goofy, Jim Maurer shares his unique experiences from having worked as a trainer with the Cowboys for over 20 years.
by Nick Eatman
There is a hallway near the front entrance of the Valley Ranch headquarters that holds every team picture in the 50 years of Dallas Cowboys football.
In a matter of steps, you can walk past the history of the organization from the days of Tom Landry to Jimmy Johnson, Bill Parcells and now Wade Phillips.
Walking down a hallway, of course, is one thing, but to have actually worked with every head coach this franchise has ever known is quite another.
Not many people can claim that honor. Cowboys head athletic trainer Jim Maurer is an exception. As he enters the home stretch of his 20th full-time season, along with a few years as a student-intern, Maurer has just about done it all and seen it all.
Players and coaches certainly come and go, but when it comes to the training room, Maurer has been a staple, along with his veteran staff of Britt Brown and Greg Gaither. That trio has now been together for nine seasons and is considered by many to be one of the very best groups in the NFL.
Maurer first joined the Cowboys back in 1986, when both he and Brown were student-trainers. After a short stint with the Chiefs the next year, Maurer, who earned his degree at SMU in Dallas, returned to the Cowboys as a graduate assistant during the 1988 and 1989 seasons. Not long after, he was hired fulltime by then-head trainer Kevin O'Neil, who today is still the head trainer of the Dolphins.
While he learned plenty from O'Neil, it's safe to say many young trainers have since learned the ropes of the business from Maurer, who took over as the Cowboys' head trainer in 1996.
With more than two decades under his belt, Maurer sat down to share a little of his experience with us.
Have you taught yourself not to have a weak stomach? You've probably seen it all by now when it comes to injuries.
"Well, I'm sure I haven't seen it all. But I think people that get into the medical profession, you're not even thinking about that. That's just part of what you're doing. I'd like to think I don't freak out with certain things, but at times, it doesn't look right and it's hard to deal with. It's more about the medical side of it and what you have to do to help this person."
So while a touchdown or big play may not matter so much in a preseason game, for the trainers, an injury is an injury. You probably always say you've got 20 games, not just 16.
"You've got all year really. Even every practice, you don't plan on having a disaster, but you have to be ready for one. You go at a different pace in practice, but one thing I always tell my student trainers when they come in for training camp, you've got to be ready for anything at any time."
You've seen a lot of injuries to a lot of players, but is there a player or two that your heart just goes out to, that luck never seemed to be on their side?
"Well I've got a few of those. But one guy from a long time ago that I only had the fortune to be around for a couple of years, is Alfredo Roberts. Alfredo goes through our whole season in 1992 prior to our first Super Bowl and he's a key player on our offense. Then in the last game against the Bears, he tears his ACL. So he's worked his butt off all year long, gotten to the promise land, if you will, and now he doesn't get to play in the playoffs and go to the Super Bowl.
"So he rehabs and comes back the next summer, and then suffers a Lis Franc fracture in his foot during training camp. So there's another 4-6 month rehab. So he missed that season, and what did we do? We went to the Super Bowl again. And after that, Alfredo really wasn't the same player. He never got a chance to experience firsthand what he deserved. Your heart goes out to guys like that."
There're probably several stories along those same lines?
"Sure, I've got another one. We had a linebacker named Godfrey Myles. He's the only guy that I know of that tore his ACL in one Super Bowl and then tore his other ACL in another Super Bowl. He's probably the only guy who has torn his ACL in two straight Super Bowls. He spent the whole off-season, each of the years after the Super Bowl, rushing through the process to get ready for camp each time."
Is there one injury that just sticks out more than any other?
"There have been several, but one that stands out in my mind as one of the most bizarre injuries I've ever seen happened to a Pittsburgh Steelers player in a preseason game about eight or nine years ago. Destry Wright was a running back for them, his ankle was turned all the way around, 180 degrees. So if you're lying on the ground on your stomach, your toes are pointed down; his toes were pointed straight up.
"I was the first one on the field because it happened in front of our sidelines. I just went over there to give support until their guys came over. The doctors came over and we call it "reducing" or relocating his ankle.
"He gets carted off and then the very next play, at the very same spot on the field, (safety) Sean Key breaks his tibia and fibula right in front of the bench again. I'm standing right there for him, too. He's on his stomach and his leg is flopping over and I ran out there and picked it up and made it straight for him. You talk about ... you're not ready for those things. That's two plays in a row at the same part of the field. So I'll always remember that game."
Players are known for having superstitions. What's one of the weirdest things you've seen a player do?
"There are lots of quirky things. Deion [Sanders's] thing was pretty weird. He would lay out his entire uniform on the floor—exactly how he was going to wear it from gloves, wristbands, ankle-bands or whatever he wore. He then would walk around it and make sure it looked right. He did that every game, every single game. When he did that the first game he was here, we all looked at him like, 'What are you doing?' But that was Deion."
You would think with seeing so many injuries that they would run together in your mind. But it sounds like you can keep them separate.
"Well, that's how I remember games, through the injuries. If we're in draft meetings and talking about a game or something, I usually say something like, 'Oh yeah, I remember that was the game that so-and-so got hurt.' Like, I remember the game in Monterrey, Mexico against the Kansas City Chiefs because one of our tight ends, Kendal Watkins, tore his ACL. And we were at this stadium and it was hard to get him around. It was very awkward. I remember playing Kansas City in Monterrey because of Kendal Watkins."
So what do you remember from the Giants game in the Meadowlands at the end of the 1993 regular season?
"It's got to be Emmitt, of course. But the funny story to me was after the game was over, John Madden came into the locker room and everyone is standing around Emmitt and congratulating him on that performance. And Madden walked into the locker room and told Emmitt he played a great game and as he was leaving, he just gave Emmitt a pat on the shoulder like anyone would. But he hit him right there on his right shoulder and Emmitt just cringed. I don't think (Madden) realized what he did."
What player stands out as someone that over the years, you rarely saw in the training room? Someone who just never get hurt?
"Oh, that's a good question. Actually, one does stand out right away and that's Michael Myers, especially at the position he played, defensive lineman. I make a joke with all of the rookie players that come in, especially if you're a linebacker or defensive lineman. When they come in, we ask them to list all of their injuries and sometimes we get some guys that say 'none.'
"So I ask them, 'So you're a linebacker or defensive lineman and you've never gotten hurt? I don't want you on my team because you don't make any plays.' Every lineman or linebacker has an injury. They make a play every single play. They're always in the play.
"And Michael Myers never came into our training room. I know he got hurt when he went to Denver or Cleveland and missed some games. But that guy never got hurt here. He barely came in to the training room to even get his ankles taped. So Michael Myers sticks out for me."
How frustrating is it to read stories in the media about a player's injury when you know the situation is different in reality than is being portrayed?
"That happens a lot. One that sticks out to me is with Julius Jones, when he had his high ankle sprain back in 2005. I had to sit there and listen to everyone ridicule him on his running ability—he came back too soon, or he's not fast anymore, or whatever it was. But Julius never questioned ever trying to play. He never used his ankle as an excuse and he always tried to do the best he could. And he had some good games when his ankle was hurt. But that never gets talked about. To me, that's one of those situations where I wish I could tell the media, or other people, that there's more to this guy than everyone realized."
Who are the two or three toughest players you remember?
"Larry Allen has got to be one of the toughest guys I've ever seen. I hate to single out anyone because there're probably 15 or 20 that I'd put in that category. But Larry wasn't going to miss anything at any time for anybody. Guys like Charles Haley, he played through three back surgeries at the end of his career. He always played on Sunday. And not just play, but at a high level. Tony Tolbert was the same kind of guy."
Was that infectious to other players?
"I think it was to some degree, especially when you have a veteran guy and see the younger guys with just a sprained ankle and here's the vet with back surgery just last week. If they can concentrate on that, instead of worrying about their injury, they might even play better. Somebody in the modern-day era in that category would be Dat Nguyen. He had a total love for the game and wouldn't come out even if he should have come out. He didn't tell us about his wrist injury and ended up needing big-time surgery the next day. He came back and missed only eight games or so. He played with a lot of injuries. You never had to question if Dat was going to give you everything on Sunday."
Who were some of the players that have made your job fun?
"Without question, if I was starting a team today it would be Michael Irvin. His passion for the game, his work ethic—he was all football all the time. Obviously, he put up the numbers, but Mike practiced hard, he worked hard in the weight room. He did so much that a lot of people don't even know. I'm not trying to single him out, but he just sticks out to me."
Have any of the head coaches with whom you've worked been knowledgeable about injuries?
"I would say [Bill] Parcells. Right from the beginning, he came up to me and told me, 'Just so you know, I know what most everything is, so just tell me what everything is. I can deal with it. But I'm still going to be mad at you because he's hurt.' He knew the difference between a lot of injuries. Even though you had to take some barbs from him, he understood what a certain injury meant, relative to how long a guy might be out."
Have there been some heated game-day debates on whether a player should actually play or not?
"That is hard. We get into some debates. We've got a player, we've got a doctor and a head coach and then me, all four of us trying to make a good decision. First of all, what's right for the player? It can come down to that last two hours before a game. In Parcells' mind, it doesn't. You either practice that week, and if you don't you're probably not going to do enough to help during the game anyway. And I agree with that."
What do you recall about Tom Landry?
"Well, I was just a young guy. Tom Landry was one of those guys that your back could be to the door, but as soon as he walked into the room, you could feel that somebody just walked in there. He had that kind of personality. It wasn't anything commanding or mean about it, it was all about respect with him. He was a pillar of what we were all about, especially a young student trainer."
And you worked for Jimmy Johnson. Now was there really an asthma field?
"Yeah, that's what he said to a kicker one time. There was an asthma field. He told the kicker to go over there. I wasn't sure where it was, but he said it."
What else do you remember about his coaching style?
"Jimmy worked on the players' fear a lot. He wasn't afraid to cut someone at a moment's notice. He told them ahead of time. You respect a coach like that. They just wanted the best out of you. If you can't do it, there's really no room for you."
So when you have to go to a coach during a game and tell him a player is out, do any of them handle it well?
"Very few. It's not that they're mad at you. They're just mad they don't have that player to help them win the game. The athletic trainer wants to win the game, too. But unfortunately, when it comes to an injury, that goes out the window for us. We have to make the best judgment for the player's health. But we definitely want to win games, too."
Dallas Cowboys Star Magazine, December 19, 2009
MAN IN TRAINING
From the gruesome to the goofy, Jim Maurer shares his unique experiences from having worked as a trainer with the Cowboys for over 20 years.
by Nick Eatman
There is a hallway near the front entrance of the Valley Ranch headquarters that holds every team picture in the 50 years of Dallas Cowboys football.
In a matter of steps, you can walk past the history of the organization from the days of Tom Landry to Jimmy Johnson, Bill Parcells and now Wade Phillips.
Walking down a hallway, of course, is one thing, but to have actually worked with every head coach this franchise has ever known is quite another.
Not many people can claim that honor. Cowboys head athletic trainer Jim Maurer is an exception. As he enters the home stretch of his 20th full-time season, along with a few years as a student-intern, Maurer has just about done it all and seen it all.
Players and coaches certainly come and go, but when it comes to the training room, Maurer has been a staple, along with his veteran staff of Britt Brown and Greg Gaither. That trio has now been together for nine seasons and is considered by many to be one of the very best groups in the NFL.
Maurer first joined the Cowboys back in 1986, when both he and Brown were student-trainers. After a short stint with the Chiefs the next year, Maurer, who earned his degree at SMU in Dallas, returned to the Cowboys as a graduate assistant during the 1988 and 1989 seasons. Not long after, he was hired fulltime by then-head trainer Kevin O'Neil, who today is still the head trainer of the Dolphins.
While he learned plenty from O'Neil, it's safe to say many young trainers have since learned the ropes of the business from Maurer, who took over as the Cowboys' head trainer in 1996.
With more than two decades under his belt, Maurer sat down to share a little of his experience with us.
Have you taught yourself not to have a weak stomach? You've probably seen it all by now when it comes to injuries.
"Well, I'm sure I haven't seen it all. But I think people that get into the medical profession, you're not even thinking about that. That's just part of what you're doing. I'd like to think I don't freak out with certain things, but at times, it doesn't look right and it's hard to deal with. It's more about the medical side of it and what you have to do to help this person."
So while a touchdown or big play may not matter so much in a preseason game, for the trainers, an injury is an injury. You probably always say you've got 20 games, not just 16.
"You've got all year really. Even every practice, you don't plan on having a disaster, but you have to be ready for one. You go at a different pace in practice, but one thing I always tell my student trainers when they come in for training camp, you've got to be ready for anything at any time."
You've seen a lot of injuries to a lot of players, but is there a player or two that your heart just goes out to, that luck never seemed to be on their side?
"Well I've got a few of those. But one guy from a long time ago that I only had the fortune to be around for a couple of years, is Alfredo Roberts. Alfredo goes through our whole season in 1992 prior to our first Super Bowl and he's a key player on our offense. Then in the last game against the Bears, he tears his ACL. So he's worked his butt off all year long, gotten to the promise land, if you will, and now he doesn't get to play in the playoffs and go to the Super Bowl.
"So he rehabs and comes back the next summer, and then suffers a Lis Franc fracture in his foot during training camp. So there's another 4-6 month rehab. So he missed that season, and what did we do? We went to the Super Bowl again. And after that, Alfredo really wasn't the same player. He never got a chance to experience firsthand what he deserved. Your heart goes out to guys like that."
There're probably several stories along those same lines?
"Sure, I've got another one. We had a linebacker named Godfrey Myles. He's the only guy that I know of that tore his ACL in one Super Bowl and then tore his other ACL in another Super Bowl. He's probably the only guy who has torn his ACL in two straight Super Bowls. He spent the whole off-season, each of the years after the Super Bowl, rushing through the process to get ready for camp each time."
Is there one injury that just sticks out more than any other?
"There have been several, but one that stands out in my mind as one of the most bizarre injuries I've ever seen happened to a Pittsburgh Steelers player in a preseason game about eight or nine years ago. Destry Wright was a running back for them, his ankle was turned all the way around, 180 degrees. So if you're lying on the ground on your stomach, your toes are pointed down; his toes were pointed straight up.
"I was the first one on the field because it happened in front of our sidelines. I just went over there to give support until their guys came over. The doctors came over and we call it "reducing" or relocating his ankle.
"He gets carted off and then the very next play, at the very same spot on the field, (safety) Sean Key breaks his tibia and fibula right in front of the bench again. I'm standing right there for him, too. He's on his stomach and his leg is flopping over and I ran out there and picked it up and made it straight for him. You talk about ... you're not ready for those things. That's two plays in a row at the same part of the field. So I'll always remember that game."
Players are known for having superstitions. What's one of the weirdest things you've seen a player do?
"There are lots of quirky things. Deion [Sanders's] thing was pretty weird. He would lay out his entire uniform on the floor—exactly how he was going to wear it from gloves, wristbands, ankle-bands or whatever he wore. He then would walk around it and make sure it looked right. He did that every game, every single game. When he did that the first game he was here, we all looked at him like, 'What are you doing?' But that was Deion."
You would think with seeing so many injuries that they would run together in your mind. But it sounds like you can keep them separate.
"Well, that's how I remember games, through the injuries. If we're in draft meetings and talking about a game or something, I usually say something like, 'Oh yeah, I remember that was the game that so-and-so got hurt.' Like, I remember the game in Monterrey, Mexico against the Kansas City Chiefs because one of our tight ends, Kendal Watkins, tore his ACL. And we were at this stadium and it was hard to get him around. It was very awkward. I remember playing Kansas City in Monterrey because of Kendal Watkins."
So what do you remember from the Giants game in the Meadowlands at the end of the 1993 regular season?
"It's got to be Emmitt, of course. But the funny story to me was after the game was over, John Madden came into the locker room and everyone is standing around Emmitt and congratulating him on that performance. And Madden walked into the locker room and told Emmitt he played a great game and as he was leaving, he just gave Emmitt a pat on the shoulder like anyone would. But he hit him right there on his right shoulder and Emmitt just cringed. I don't think (Madden) realized what he did."
What player stands out as someone that over the years, you rarely saw in the training room? Someone who just never get hurt?
"Oh, that's a good question. Actually, one does stand out right away and that's Michael Myers, especially at the position he played, defensive lineman. I make a joke with all of the rookie players that come in, especially if you're a linebacker or defensive lineman. When they come in, we ask them to list all of their injuries and sometimes we get some guys that say 'none.'
"So I ask them, 'So you're a linebacker or defensive lineman and you've never gotten hurt? I don't want you on my team because you don't make any plays.' Every lineman or linebacker has an injury. They make a play every single play. They're always in the play.
"And Michael Myers never came into our training room. I know he got hurt when he went to Denver or Cleveland and missed some games. But that guy never got hurt here. He barely came in to the training room to even get his ankles taped. So Michael Myers sticks out for me."
How frustrating is it to read stories in the media about a player's injury when you know the situation is different in reality than is being portrayed?
"That happens a lot. One that sticks out to me is with Julius Jones, when he had his high ankle sprain back in 2005. I had to sit there and listen to everyone ridicule him on his running ability—he came back too soon, or he's not fast anymore, or whatever it was. But Julius never questioned ever trying to play. He never used his ankle as an excuse and he always tried to do the best he could. And he had some good games when his ankle was hurt. But that never gets talked about. To me, that's one of those situations where I wish I could tell the media, or other people, that there's more to this guy than everyone realized."
Who are the two or three toughest players you remember?
"Larry Allen has got to be one of the toughest guys I've ever seen. I hate to single out anyone because there're probably 15 or 20 that I'd put in that category. But Larry wasn't going to miss anything at any time for anybody. Guys like Charles Haley, he played through three back surgeries at the end of his career. He always played on Sunday. And not just play, but at a high level. Tony Tolbert was the same kind of guy."
Was that infectious to other players?
"I think it was to some degree, especially when you have a veteran guy and see the younger guys with just a sprained ankle and here's the vet with back surgery just last week. If they can concentrate on that, instead of worrying about their injury, they might even play better. Somebody in the modern-day era in that category would be Dat Nguyen. He had a total love for the game and wouldn't come out even if he should have come out. He didn't tell us about his wrist injury and ended up needing big-time surgery the next day. He came back and missed only eight games or so. He played with a lot of injuries. You never had to question if Dat was going to give you everything on Sunday."
Who were some of the players that have made your job fun?
"Without question, if I was starting a team today it would be Michael Irvin. His passion for the game, his work ethic—he was all football all the time. Obviously, he put up the numbers, but Mike practiced hard, he worked hard in the weight room. He did so much that a lot of people don't even know. I'm not trying to single him out, but he just sticks out to me."
Have any of the head coaches with whom you've worked been knowledgeable about injuries?
"I would say [Bill] Parcells. Right from the beginning, he came up to me and told me, 'Just so you know, I know what most everything is, so just tell me what everything is. I can deal with it. But I'm still going to be mad at you because he's hurt.' He knew the difference between a lot of injuries. Even though you had to take some barbs from him, he understood what a certain injury meant, relative to how long a guy might be out."
Have there been some heated game-day debates on whether a player should actually play or not?
"That is hard. We get into some debates. We've got a player, we've got a doctor and a head coach and then me, all four of us trying to make a good decision. First of all, what's right for the player? It can come down to that last two hours before a game. In Parcells' mind, it doesn't. You either practice that week, and if you don't you're probably not going to do enough to help during the game anyway. And I agree with that."
What do you recall about Tom Landry?
"Well, I was just a young guy. Tom Landry was one of those guys that your back could be to the door, but as soon as he walked into the room, you could feel that somebody just walked in there. He had that kind of personality. It wasn't anything commanding or mean about it, it was all about respect with him. He was a pillar of what we were all about, especially a young student trainer."
And you worked for Jimmy Johnson. Now was there really an asthma field?
"Yeah, that's what he said to a kicker one time. There was an asthma field. He told the kicker to go over there. I wasn't sure where it was, but he said it."
What else do you remember about his coaching style?
"Jimmy worked on the players' fear a lot. He wasn't afraid to cut someone at a moment's notice. He told them ahead of time. You respect a coach like that. They just wanted the best out of you. If you can't do it, there's really no room for you."
So when you have to go to a coach during a game and tell him a player is out, do any of them handle it well?
"Very few. It's not that they're mad at you. They're just mad they don't have that player to help them win the game. The athletic trainer wants to win the game, too. But unfortunately, when it comes to an injury, that goes out the window for us. We have to make the best judgment for the player's health. But we definitely want to win games, too."
Dallas Cowboys Star Magazine, December 19, 2009