I wrote a story in 2005 on pain and how Iowa football players deal with it. Pain medication is prescribed, but the they don't give it out willy nilly as you can probably imagine.
The relevance here is the James Cleveland-oxycodone arrest over the weekend.
IOWA CITY - When Chad Greenway gets home tonight, he'll sit in front of the TV and do
little else. Tomorrow, Abdul Hodge will look forward to the first of three or four "cold
plunges" he takes a week. Albert Young might pop a few ibuprofen.
Pain is as diverse as Iowa's roster. Players suffer and overcome as players can. If
that's spending 14 minutes in a 48-degree tub of water, well, whatever takes away the pain.
"There have been times I've been a little nicked up, but that's part of the
game," Hodge said. "Football is a physical sport. It demands a lot from you
physically and mentally. We all signed up for this, like coach says. Pain comes with it."
Pain is subjective. It's not easily measured by medical personnel. Dealing with pain and
helping athletes manage it also varies, depending on the injury and condition. A sprained ankle
doesn't call for the same approach as a torn ACL. And a sprained ankle might be a hangnail
for one player, but for another it might be a four-alarm meltdown.
"Now that most teams are five or six weeks into their seasons, many players are
experiencing week-to-week pains," said Paul Federici, Iowa's director of athletics
training services. "Most of those cyclical aches and pains are easily managed. But
it's not the same for everyone."
Pain management is the first thing on the Iowa training staff's list Sunday mornings.
Players participate in what's called a "shake
out" run, a series of 12 to 18 55-yard sprints. It's designed to pump blood into the
legs. Federici called it a "moderate" activity and a good beginning to a week of
practice and pounding.
"Once the game is over that night you can't do anything but lay there and watch TV
because you're just kind of healing," said Greenway, a senior linebacker.
"Sundays, we get to come in and jog it out. I think that's what sets us apart. We
come in and do a pretty difficult run Sunday and kind of get all those bumps and bruises worked
out.
"That's where the healing process kind of starts. You usually feel a lot better and
you're not as stiff anymore."
Activities are a component in getting past aches and pains. Stretching and range-of-motion
exercises are also used.
Then there are something Federici called "superficial modalities." That's
trainer-speak for ice, cold whirlpools, heat packs, ultrasound treatment, contrast baths.
This is part of a player's pain "cycle." The Saturday night soreness, the
Sunday run and visits to the training room for icing or heating or an ultrasound, it's all
part of what Greenway called a "cycle."
"After the first week, it's a repeating cycle, week after week," he said.
When he arrived in Iowa City five years ago, Hodge, a senior linebacker, was a little weirded
out when he saw players like Robert Gallery, Fred Russell and Bob Sanders dunk their bodies
into a cold tub. Now he looks forward to it up to four times a week.
"Coming in as a young guy, looking at guys like Gallery and Fred Russell and Bob, who
always did that plunge pool, that paid off for them Saturdays and their whole career,"
Hodge said. "I tried to follow what they did. I tried to adapt the same thing. We have a
lot of guys who do it."
Jumping into a pool of cold water is one thing. Popping a handful of ibuprofen, or any other
over-the-counter anti-inflammatory, into their digestive systems is another.
First of all, over-the-counter anti-inflammatories don't sit out in the Iowa football
complex like M&Ms in a candy dish. Everything, non-presciption and prescription, is
secured. Prescription drugs are logged. Sudafed, or any medication that contains
pseudoephedrine, is logged.
Instruction is provided when a medication is dispensed, Federici said.
"I think 15 or 20 years ago, a lot of athletes had quick and ready access to over-the-counter medications," Federici said. "Anti-inflammatories were left out and put out on counters. That really is a practice of the past.
"Education is so fundamental to this community and environment that it's consistent
with almost everything we do with our athletes."
Over-the-counter anti-inflammatories are available, and they do get used, Coach Kirk Ferentz acknowledged.
"As you might imagine, there's a lot of ibuprofen and aspirin that gets gobbled up around here," he said.
But players are cautious. They've seen NBA players Alonzo Mourning and Sean Elliott deal
with kidney disorders believed to be caused by use of over-the-counter anti-inflammatories.
They know they can't shovel pills into their mouths.
"They (trainers) don't really talk to us much about it," quarterback Drew Tate
said. "They expect us to use some common sense."
"Pills don't do everything," said Young, a sophomore running back. "They don't work wonders."
The only day Greenway allows himself to take pain medication is game day. It's something
to take an edge off his banged up shoulder, a "weekend injury," he called it. He also
has lingering pain from a groin injury he suffered last season.
"I try to stay away from that stuff as much as possible. It hurts you through the
years," Greenway said. "You have to do it the right way, so then maybe you can
prolong your life.
"That's not a bad thing."