Life of Running Back in the NFL: There’s Gain, and Pain

Matt Suhey of the Chicago Bears clearly was looking forward to experiencing the heady feeling of taking the field with his teammates for the first time as the defending National Football League champions. But another feeling -- severe pain in his lower back -- took precedence earlier this summer.

During the Bears’ 15-1 march through the NFL last season, Suhey did wonderful work as a blocking fullback for Walter Payton while still totaling 766 yards rushing and receiving and two touchdowns. He also scored his team’s first touchdown in the Bears’ 46-10 Super Bowl victory over New England. Most of that work was done despite a herniated disc in his back.

Although surgery wasn’t required after the season, team doctors forbade Suhey from any contact for six months, including a May mini-camp and the first week of training camp in July. On the first day Suhey did return to the field, just before the Bears’ exhibition opener in London, he cracked a tooth in the back of his mouth, causing him to miss the game.

Still, Suhey, 28, has come to at least understand and make allowances for the pain of being an NFL running back. It is a hurt every NFL running back knows all too well, no matter how long, or short, their careers span.

Life for an NFL running back can be so satisfying when the yards mount up on Sunday afternoons. The day after, though, is usually another story. Ask John Riggins, who spent most of the days after games in a hot whirlpool, soaking away the hurt. Ask Earl Campbell, who decided that another season of pounding was not worth the pain. Ask former Redskin Larry Brown, whose knees hurt so much he has difficulty walking nine holes of golf.

Still, there are certain advantages. Running backs like Payton, Eric Dickerson and Marcus Allen make the big money, and hardly anyone who has played the game begrudges these men their cash for carry. Their life expectancy in the league is less than four years.

For every Walter Payton, there are dozens of out-of-work backs cut down by injury in the prime of their careers. And for every superstar back, there is usually a Suhey-type player, a fellow who must make the crucial block, the key short-yardage first down, the clutch catch over the middle on third and six.

For Chicago’s Suhey, a veteran of six years from Penn State, none of the injuries he has received has been serious enough to warrant retirement. But there are days when he thinks about life after football and wonders if all those jarring hits and collisions will take a toll.

“You look at how far medical technology has advanced but you still wonder, ‘Am I gonna be able to run with my kids (after his career is over)?’ � Suhey said. “I guess there is the possibility that something could happen, not only today or tomorrow but five or six, or 10 to 15 years ahead.�

Like so many running backs before him, Suhey has questioned why he continues to play and take hit after hit, despite his present hurts and the prospect of an impaired future. “I think it gets to become an ego thing, that you want to prove that you’re mentally and physically tougher than the guy you’re playing against,� he said.

It also helps to adjust. According to Suhey, the mental preparation off the field is just as important in functioning day-to-day as the ability to kick out a linebacker on a sweep or read the correct hole when running a trap.

“You learn the system better as you go along,� he said. “You learn which things to concentrate on, which days are more important physically and which are more important mentally. You learn not what to do, but how to do it.�

For Suhey, the process begins when he’s walking off the field after one of those any given Sundays.

The day after the game is given to reviewing films of the contest with some light weightlifting. The team has the following day off, which gives most of the players a chance to rest, make a few personal appearances and rest some more. On Wednesday and Thursday, the work week resumes in earnest, with Suhey using that day’s practice to “regain the feel of physical contact and working some of the bumps and bruises out.�

On Fridays and Saturdays, days devoted to specialization work like goal-line offense and the kicking game, Suhey said it’s more important to be sharp mentally and so he takes the opportunity to build up his strength for the upcoming game, all the while thinking about beginning anew the following week.

“Football players are funny,� he said. “They never give themselves the chance to grasp the game they’re playing, it’s always the one that’s just ended or just ahead.�

Suhey said you also learn when to get up out of bed. He said that as he gets older, the process takes a little more time. But he also insists it’s nothing like the opening scene in the movie “North Dallas Forty,� in which Nick Nolte, playing a professional wide receiver, goes through a series of elaborate, obviously painful stretches and exercises just to get to the point where he can return to the practice field for more abuse.

“There are mornings when you wake up saying, ‘Boy, am I sore,’ but you’re usually able to get the kinks out easier than that,� Suhey said.

“My neck and shoulders take the brunt of the pounding from blocking but I think it’s worse for someone who carries the ball all the time. You’re constantly getting hit and you’re never sure where the contact is coming from.�

Suhey takes the theory a step further in trying to account for the longevity of someone such as Campbell, who recently retired after eight NFL seasons, or Payton, still going strong after 11 years. Looking at them, he said, it’s not so hard to deal with pain on a daily basis.

“Guys like that have an urgency to win and to do well,� he said. “I remember a game a couple of years ago when we were getting beat up pretty good by the Rams. It was late and I was out with a knee injury but Walter was still in there diving for yards on every play. I went over to him once on the sidelines and asked him why he was throwing himself like that into a game we were gonna lose.

“He said, ‘Hey, they’re still paying me money.’ That’s when I knew I could put up with the things that happen when you play. I think once you lose that sense of pride in yourself is when you’ll know that it’s time to get out.�