It hurt to run 10 yards; he had his knee drained 15 times this season and micro-fracture surgery loomed down the road if he continued playing. So it wasn’t difficult, in the end, to reach a conclusion: Chris Cooley couldn’t play anymore this season.
But beyond 2011? Cooley says that’s a no brainer.
“I’m not at the point where I wonder If I’m going to be back,” said Cooley, a third-round pick in 2004. “I’ve spent plenty of time talking to people that matter in the organization and I know how people feel about me and I know how I feel myself and I know what it takes to continue to play for us.
“Every part of me absolutely believes not only will I continue to play for the Washington Redskins, but I’ll continue to be an outstanding player at the position… It’s amazing what this franchise means to me and what our fans mean to me. Our general manager [Bruce Allen] and our head coach [Mike Shanahan] believe in me and I have no doubt I’ll play well for us in the future and not next year, but for a continued number of years.”
Cooley, who turns 30 in July and has two more years left on his contract, said he has no desire to play for another franchise. And his main goal is to help the Redskins win a Super Bowl.
But he also said he doesn’t know how much he would have been able to help the franchise this season. He already was going to miss at least a month with a broken finger. Cooley had hoped this time off would help the inflammation in his left knee calm down.
However, after meeting with team orthopedist, Dr. James Andrews, on Sunday and then flying to his facility in Pensacola for more tests Monday, Cooley knew that time off would not be enough for his knee to recover.
He did not have another procedure – he had arthroscopic surgery in January — but one fear was that if he continued playing, he’d eventually need micro-fracture surgery.
“Dr. Andrews thought it would be 50-50 or at best a 70 percent chance that I would play again [after micro-fracture],” Cooley said.
He said he’s dealt with cartilage issues for the past six years. But in part because of how he handled his rehab in the offseason – due in part to the lockout – he has other issues. Cooley said the entire joint remained inflamed and he couldn’t keep the swelling down. Add tendinitis on top of it and there was plenty of discomfort.
It’s why he said he had his knee drained of fluid so often.
“I had a lot of lateral pain which was strange,” he said. “It hurt to run 10 yards. I could admit it to myself and my coaches but I wouldn’t say it to anybody else. But at the point I hit 10 yards I wasn’t fast. I wasn’t quick in and out of cuts.”
But he was pleased with how he had played in the first five games, including two games spent at fullback.
“If it got worse, the question is would I help us, I don’t know,” he said.
Cooley said he’s 100 percent convinced he’s a victim of the lockout. His initial surgery was in January and he was able to spend more than a month with the Redskins’ staff before the lockout. When he felt discomfort later in the spring Cooley said his mindset was to work harder.
“What I went through in July, I could have went through in March,” he said. “I felt terrible when we got [to] training camp. I felt that was a letdown to the team, to the organization and to the fans to show up after six months off and not be better. I felt almost embarrassed that I wasn’t ready from my injury so I wanted to do everything I could to play right then. It wasn’t that I didn’t do anything. I worked hard. I should have taken more time rehabbing initially. That again, it was stubbornness me thinking I’m going to be OK and I’m going to work through pain. That’s how I’ve gotten through my entire career and it’s always worked. It didn’t work this time.”
He joked that if the Redskins somehow made the NFC Championship Game or the Super Bowl he would “strangle” Shanahan, knowing how badly he’d want to be part of such a scenario. Cooley said often in camp and early in the season that he wanted to play this season through pain because he considered this to be a special team. And he re-iterated that he wants to go through something like that in Washington.
He recalled going to see the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl and watching them run out of the tunnel.
“I watched those guys run out and thought nothing would compare to that,” he said. “Nothing would beat the feeling of running onto the field to play the Super Bowl and being part of a team that won the Super Bowl. But I’ve been here so long and this has been such an important part of my life. I don’t want to run through the tunnel in another uniform. This will be the only team I care about the rest of my life and I want to do it with this team. I’m a fan of the Redskins. I’m a fan of the guys that played before me and I love being part of it so yeah a Super Bowl for this team is why I’ll continue to play this game.”
