Member-only story
It’s Great to be Old
I was told that I was old by my lawyer when I was in my middle 50s.
I was in college. It was the first game of the season. I was playing defensive back on the University of Delaware football team. We were playing Lehigh.
They were pretty good that year. Lehigh’s quarterback was exceptional and had a cup of coffee with a couple of teams in the NFL when his colligate days were finished.
While chasing him around all day, toward the end of the third quarter he made a cut to the right on a quarterback keeper. I cut to the left to make the tackle. My knee stayed where it originally was before my unfortunate attempt.
The pain was like an electric shock.
After a bit of poking and prodding on the sideline, the team trainer passed me off to the team doctor. The real medical guy did a field diagnosis and pronounced I had torn the cartilage in my left knee.
His brief checkup proved to be true when I was sent to Wilmington Hospital the next week for a more in depth examination.
At the time, removal of a torn knee cartilage was quite an involved procedure.
It was decided that my knee would be taped up before every practice and game. It was determined everything would be copacetic.
