Saulbadguy
08-01-2005, 06:39 AM
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/080105/chi_mccleon.shtml
Published Monday, August 1, 2005
McCleon: 'I'll be back'
Corner returns healthy
By Rick Dean
The Capital-Journal
RIVER FALLS, Wis. -- He never offered it as an excuse for his dismal showing in 2004.
Maybe he should have.
Officially, Dexter McCleon lost his starting spot in the Chiefs secondary last year because of a hamstring strain sustained in the Week Six rout of Atlanta. Unofficially, McCleon didn't start that Falcons game because he'd been burned for too many big plays the previous week in a loss at Jacksonville.
In actuality, McCleon had been nursing a right shoulder injury since training camp. The injury made it difficult to pump his arms while running, to play bump-and-run defense, to tackle or raise his right arm to defend a pass.
It was difficult even to shower in the morning or after a practice.
Kansas City Chiefs defensive back Dexter McCleon struggled mightily last season while battling through a shoulder injury, but he expects to bounce back in 2005 now that he's healthy. McCleon is a probable starter at corner while Eric Warfield serves his four-game suspension.
Click here to check for reprint availability.
"I could barely (touch) my left shoulder with my right arm. I was doing this just to be able to wash," he said, twisting and gyrating into uncomfortable positions to demonstrate.
His coaches and teammates knew this, of course. They understood.
The public, however, knew nothing of his shoulder problems. Football teams often don't reveal shoulder injuries to defensive players whose shoulders usually are the first point of contact when making a tackle.
"I wasn't going to use it as an excuse," McCleon said. "It limited me in a lot of ways, but I just kept taking shots to numb it up and tried to go about my business. But it got to the point where the bones in the shoulder were so locked up, I couldn't do anything else."
So McCleon played on. When he didn't play to his standards of 2003 -- his first year in Kansas City, the year his six interceptions tied for the team lead -- most fans just figured he was a washed-up corner at the age of 31.
Well, McCleon now hopes to deliver a message to anyone ready to write him off.
"I'll be back," he promised after the second practice of the Chiefs' Wisconsin training camp. "The shoulder is night and day compared to last year. I'm feeling much better, and I plan on delivering."
The Chiefs are counting on that delivery. With starter Eric Warfield suspended for the season's killer first month for violating the NFL's alcohol abuse policy, Kansas City is turning to McCleon again as its first line of defense in Warfield's absence.
Though he missed spring drills while recovering from the surgery that cleaned up several painful bone chips and shaved down some bone in his shoulder, Warfield now works daily in the starting right corner spot opposite newcomer Patrick Surtain, Kansas City's biggest offseason acquisition.
Should McCleon struggle again in his ninth season, the Chiefs will have to try Ashley Ambrose, who will turn 35 before the Week Two game in Oakland this year, recently signed Dewayne Washington, 32, or 24-year-old second-year player Bennie Sapp.
Coach Dick Vermeil, who knew McCleon as a contributor on his 1999 Super Bowl champion Rams, insists that McCleon is up to the challenge.
"If he gets back to where he was (in 2003) and he does what I know he's capable of doing, he'll play very well," Vermeil said. "It could be tough to replace him when Eric comes back."
McCleon, suddenly carrying expectations he wouldn't have thought possible again after he was written off by the Rams and hired as a nickel-back candidate in KC, believes he's ready to be a consistent contributor again.
"I think the guy Kansas City people saw (in 2003) is the norm. That's the guy I want people to see this year," he said. "If you play in this league long enough, you're going to have some bad years. It's how you bounce back from them that counts."
Published Monday, August 1, 2005
McCleon: 'I'll be back'
Corner returns healthy
By Rick Dean
The Capital-Journal
RIVER FALLS, Wis. -- He never offered it as an excuse for his dismal showing in 2004.
Maybe he should have.
Officially, Dexter McCleon lost his starting spot in the Chiefs secondary last year because of a hamstring strain sustained in the Week Six rout of Atlanta. Unofficially, McCleon didn't start that Falcons game because he'd been burned for too many big plays the previous week in a loss at Jacksonville.
In actuality, McCleon had been nursing a right shoulder injury since training camp. The injury made it difficult to pump his arms while running, to play bump-and-run defense, to tackle or raise his right arm to defend a pass.
It was difficult even to shower in the morning or after a practice.
Kansas City Chiefs defensive back Dexter McCleon struggled mightily last season while battling through a shoulder injury, but he expects to bounce back in 2005 now that he's healthy. McCleon is a probable starter at corner while Eric Warfield serves his four-game suspension.
Click here to check for reprint availability.
"I could barely (touch) my left shoulder with my right arm. I was doing this just to be able to wash," he said, twisting and gyrating into uncomfortable positions to demonstrate.
His coaches and teammates knew this, of course. They understood.
The public, however, knew nothing of his shoulder problems. Football teams often don't reveal shoulder injuries to defensive players whose shoulders usually are the first point of contact when making a tackle.
"I wasn't going to use it as an excuse," McCleon said. "It limited me in a lot of ways, but I just kept taking shots to numb it up and tried to go about my business. But it got to the point where the bones in the shoulder were so locked up, I couldn't do anything else."
So McCleon played on. When he didn't play to his standards of 2003 -- his first year in Kansas City, the year his six interceptions tied for the team lead -- most fans just figured he was a washed-up corner at the age of 31.
Well, McCleon now hopes to deliver a message to anyone ready to write him off.
"I'll be back," he promised after the second practice of the Chiefs' Wisconsin training camp. "The shoulder is night and day compared to last year. I'm feeling much better, and I plan on delivering."
The Chiefs are counting on that delivery. With starter Eric Warfield suspended for the season's killer first month for violating the NFL's alcohol abuse policy, Kansas City is turning to McCleon again as its first line of defense in Warfield's absence.
Though he missed spring drills while recovering from the surgery that cleaned up several painful bone chips and shaved down some bone in his shoulder, Warfield now works daily in the starting right corner spot opposite newcomer Patrick Surtain, Kansas City's biggest offseason acquisition.
Should McCleon struggle again in his ninth season, the Chiefs will have to try Ashley Ambrose, who will turn 35 before the Week Two game in Oakland this year, recently signed Dewayne Washington, 32, or 24-year-old second-year player Bennie Sapp.
Coach Dick Vermeil, who knew McCleon as a contributor on his 1999 Super Bowl champion Rams, insists that McCleon is up to the challenge.
"If he gets back to where he was (in 2003) and he does what I know he's capable of doing, he'll play very well," Vermeil said. "It could be tough to replace him when Eric comes back."
McCleon, suddenly carrying expectations he wouldn't have thought possible again after he was written off by the Rams and hired as a nickel-back candidate in KC, believes he's ready to be a consistent contributor again.
"I think the guy Kansas City people saw (in 2003) is the norm. That's the guy I want people to see this year," he said. "If you play in this league long enough, you're going to have some bad years. It's how you bounce back from them that counts."