The Hurting Kind

Increasingly, Standout Running Backs Are Struggling to Stay Healthy

Last week, Adrian Peterson was being hailed as the Next Big Thing in the NFL. The rookie tailback for the Minnesota Vikings had broken the league's single-game rushing record with a 296-yard performance against the San Diego Chargers. There were visions of a 2,000-yard rushing season, and his name was creeping into discussions about the most valuable player award. He seemed to be a lock for rookie of the year.

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This week, Peterson is just another ailing running back -- a celebrated and high-profile one, yes, but still just another member of the ever-growing list of top runners who have been hurt this season. Peterson suffered a torn lateral collateral ligament in his right knee during Sunday's lopsided loss to the Green Bay Packers, and the Vikings are planning to play at least one game without him.

The good news, the Vikings say, is that they expect Peterson to play again this season. Team officials said they don't regard it as a season-ending injury and Peterson won't have to undergo surgery. A tear of the anterior cruciate ligament would have ended Peterson's season immediately, and an injury to the medial collateral ligament would have cost him several weeks. But Vikings Coach Brad Childress said during a news conference Monday that tests showed Peterson's knee to be structurally sound other than the injury to the one ligament.

"I'm told that that's a good-healing ligament," Childress said. "If it was a lineman, maybe he's braced up and plays this week. Maybe. He might. But we'll reserve judgment on what's appropriate for that in time. . . . I am told it is not [a potentially season-ending injury], no. . . . I'm real hesitant to put a timeline on that thing. Everybody heals differently. He was wanting to go back in the game [Sunday] but we didn't think that was obviously a prudent thing to do with where the game was."

As Childress was explaining the details of Peterson's injury, Buffalo Bills Coach Dick Jauron was expressing hope that his team's hotshot rookie runner, Marshawn Lynch, would be able to play this weekend against the New England Patriots despite a sprained ankle suffered Sunday.

It's the same all around the league. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' sizzling start to the season has given way to a struggle to stay above .500 in part because they lost tailback Carnell "Cadillac" Williams to a season-ending knee injury and his backup, Michael Pittman, to a high ankle sprain. The Kansas City Chiefs are waiting to see when workhorse tailback Larry Johnson will return from a mid-foot injury; a Denver television station reported last week that Johnson would miss the rest of the season.

The St. Louis Rams have only one win in part because they had to play for weeks without Steven Jackson. The Miami Dolphins remain a threat to go winless all season in part because they'll be without Ronnie Brown the rest of the way. The New Orleans Saints have had to make Reggie Bush their primary runner after Deuce McAllister suffered a season-ending knee injury.

Even the mighty New England Patriots have had to alternate Laurence Maroney and Sammy Morris as their main tailback because of injuries; Morris is now on the season-ending injured reserve list.

Other prominent tailbacks who have missed time this season because of injuries include Seattle's Shaun Alexander, San Francisco's Frank Gore, Indianapolis's Joseph Addai, Cincinnati's Rudi Johnson, Houston's Ahman Green, Philadelphia's Brian Westbrook and the New York Giants' Brandon Jacobs.

Coping with injuries is a way of life in the NFL. And they are particularly a way of life for running backs, a position at which players take such a pounding that even most stars are considered all but done when they turn 30. Peterson's injury came on a play that looked ordinary, right until the moment the league's leading rusher wasn't hopping up. "I didn't think it was a particularly vicious hit. . . . It was probably just a football play that he couldn't avoid," Childress said.

Now the biggest decision of Childress's young tenure as a head coach will be when to allow his standout tailback to return to the lineup. It undoubtedly will be tempting to get Peterson into the lineup as soon as possible and try to salvage as many wins as the Vikings can. But hurrying him back could mean diminishing his immediate productivity and risking his future.

"It's just a stability factor," Childress said. "It's his right leg. When he runs right, he would notice that. He's not going to feel anything as he is running straight ahead but obviously he is not a straight-ahead guy, and he plays and stuffs that leg in the ground much different than an offensive lineman would. . . . We're not going to put him out there until he can protect himself."