The Bears believe in miracles.
It was a miracle that the Bears won their fifth straight division title last year, considering the plethora of injuries that beset the team.
It was a miracle that coach Mike Ditka returned to the sidelines less than two weeks after suffering a heart attack.
And, miracle of miracles, how in the name of broken necks is Shaun Gayle still able to play football?
The 27-year-old safety suffered a fractured vertebra last Oct. 9 in a victory over the Detroit Lions in the Pontiac Silverdome. He spent the remainder of the season in a neck collar and on the injured-reserve list.
But, after signing a new contract last month, he`s raring to go again.
Gayle suffered his neck fracture a few days after Simeon High School player Kenneth Jennings sustained a paralyzing football injury.
”When I heard about Kenneth Jennings, I was just flying back from Detroit,” said Gayle.
”You understand that in this game, it just takes half a second (to suffer a serious injury). There are not that many players who have gotten as close as I have in terms of a serious injury and come back to play like I have,” said Gayle. ”And I`ve got to think that the only way that I was able to do it is because I didn`t let myself get that close to (thinking about) it. ”I think it is something that . . . if you dwell on it and concentrate on the possibilities, it would be real tough coming back. And I wouldn`t do that.”
When he sustained his injury Gayle was doing what he had been taught:
trying to stick his nose in the football on a pass play to the Lions` Carl Bland. He wound up colliding with teammate Mike Singletary.
”I was going to hit Bland. Singletary hit Bland and knocked him out of the way,” said Gayle. ”Since that has happened, I just have to be more aware that our linebackers are going to be coming back there on certain plays.”
Somehow, Gayle was able to remain in the game and make several more tackles.
”The strange thing about it is that the initial pain was never in the location of the break. It was just a feeling in my shoulder blades,” said Gayle.
”It was like when you make a good hit sometimes and your body will ring. And then it usually dissipates. But mine didn`t. I looked down at my arms and they were still, but they felt like they were shaking a little bit.
”As the game went on it got worse, and I just had an overall feeling that I wasn`t right. I talked to the doctors (on the sideline), and I told them I had a pain in my shoulder. He (Dr. Clarence Fossier, team physician)
felt my neck and thought it was just one of those things. They did what they thought was necessary. And I didn`t think anything else neededwere still ringing and his `light` went on.
”He said: `You`re out of the game.` And I went in and had an X-ray.”
Even after the first X-ray revealed a fracture, Gayle remained calm.
”I didn`t pay much attention to it right away because he said he thought he saw a crack. And to be on the safe side, they wanted me to stay at the Ford Hospital overnight and have some tests done,” said Gayle.
”You know, you always see on TV when a doctor has to come in and tell you some really bad news, how they approach you.
”These doctors, I guess, are used to working late nights and weekends at the hospital in Detroit. They`ve got a lot of bad news to pass on. So when it was my turn-and I was strapped onto a board-he just said: `Shaun, you broke your neck.`
”I said: `Come on, get out of here.` I thought a broken neck would leave you in real bad shape. But I felt fine, I mean, no more than just being beat up after a regular football game. So he sent in a neurologist, and he took some more tests. I had no nerve damage, and everything was fine.
”They put me in a collar, and they told me everything was in place. And, I guess, what was the real miracle is that there was no nerve damage.
”They said it was truly a miracle the way the bones stayed in alignment,” said Gayle. ”I didn`t have any swelling, and there was very minimal bleeding, because once you get swelling back there in the area which I fractured, it puts pressure on the spinal column and you suffer paralysis int where you can try to make a good hit and if the ballcarrier is maybe a half a foot from the ground, you`ve got to pull away.
”And I`m not saying this game should not be played with intensity. There comes a point where you have to be smart. I`m not saying anything that should be a surprise to anybody, especially the players. Because they know that, too.”
