Ski Accident Leaves Sports World Without a Leg to Stand On

"Walter Jones," by the St. Pete Times

The 2008 football season ended last week for Walter Jones, the Seahawks' offensive tackle and general-prover-of-Einsteinian-physics. Jones was suffering from a knee injury so severe that it would require a cutting-edge procedure called microfracture surgery. The P-I's Danny O'Neil wrote that Jones had headed off to Colorado to have the intricate surgery performed by the world's leading expert, Dr. Richard Steadman.

However, the world's go-to knee surgeon couldn't possibly have done the surgery.

Steadman broke his arm earlier this month in a ski accident, and complications have been so severe that the doctor now faces surgery himself. Athletes are now facing the decision of whether to risk the surgery with other doctors or simply go home without the surgical repair.

Last week, two prominent English footballers (Everton's James Vaughan and Manchester United's Owen Hargreaves) returned home to the U.K. without having their knees surgically repaired, intent on waiting for Steadman's arm to heal well enough to proceed with the intricate operations.

Steadman, who himself played football at Texas A&M under Bear Bryant, opened the world-renowned Steadman-Hawkins Clinic in Vail in 1990, and has pioneered innovations in knee repair like microfracture surgery, which involves drilling tiny holes into the bones of the joint in order to foster regeneration of cartilage. In addition to the high-profile (and one assumes high-paying clients) the clinic's foundation (among whose board members is the King of Spain) has also raised $33 million for research and services.

The clinic has not released a statement in regard to Steadman's injury or when he might return to the practice. Steadman's client list tops over 15,000 names, and reads like a list of future hall-of-famers in virtually every sport across the globe: Kobe Bryant, Martina Navratilova, David Beckham, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Greg Oden, Picabo Street, and of course, our own Walter Jones.

A few months ago, Steadman gave a rather fascinating interview on The Charlie Rose Show. The man is really into knees.