Former Raider lucky he still has two legs

      He will stand at a podium this afternoon at the Stardust and speak to a group of UNLV football players, coaches and boosters.
      The content of the speech is unknown. But it's a safe bet that the words "adversity" and "perseverance" will be part of the script.
     

A gruesome knee injury in 1994 ended Napoleon McCallum's football career. Special to the Review-Journal

It's also a safe bet that when he has finished addressing the crowd at the Rebels' 1997 awards banquet, Napoleon McCallum will receive a loud and warm ovation.
      The audience will applaud out of courtesy for the speech itself. And they will applaud out of respect for McCallum's success as a former college and NFL running back.
      In truth, though, they should applaud for only one reason: the simple fact that McCallum is able to stand at a podium at all.
      "Things happen when you play football," McCallum says. "I'm blessed that it isn't as bad as some of the other possible injuries you can get playing football. There's guys who snap their neck and become paralyzed, and I'm very blessed and fortunate to be able to do all the things that I do. ... I love the game; I loved playing it. But I feel very fortunate that I got out when I got out. It could have been a lot worse."
     -- -- --
      It has been more than three years since that fateful night in San Francisco.
      Yet despite the passage of time, Napoleon McCallum still finds it troubling to sit on the couch in his Henderson home on Sundays and watch an NFL game.
      For the 34-year-old, it's simply too painful. He knows he could be -- should be -- there.
      "I still miss it," he admits. "I'm gradually working my way every year, watching more and more of it (on TV). But it's hard to do when you've played against the guys who are playing.
      "You're glad everybody's doing well, but you also miss not being out there and being able to perform and compete."
      For years, there were few who could perform and compete like McCallum.
      He starred at the Naval Academy in the mid-1980s and finished his college career as all-time NCAA leader in all-purpose yards (7,172) and plays (1,137), and his 4,179 career rushing yards still ranks among the top 25 in NCAA history.
      Those stats and his two MVP performances in a pair of postseason senior bowl games helped McCallum get drafted by the Los Angeles Raiders in the fourth round of the 1986 NFL Draft.
      Like all Midshipmen, however, McCallum had a post-graduation service commitment to the Navy. He was able to play his rookie year with the Raiders while stationed at the Long Beach, Calif., naval base.
      But after tallying 536 rushing yards in 1986, McCallum was sent out to sea for two years. Two trades -- to the San Diego Chargers in 1988, then back to the Raiders in 1990 -- followed, and it wasn't until late 1993 that his NFL career began to take off.
      McCallum played in 13 games in 1993 and scored five rushing touchdowns in a pair of AFC playoff games. He finally seemed poised to make a name for himself in the NFL, and in the first game of the 1994 season, he did just that -- but for all the wrong reasons.
      With the Raiders playing the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park on Monday Night Football, McCallum took a handoff and ...
      "I got the ball and just tried to run through the middle, and the whole line was stopped up," McCallum recalls. "There was a big pile and I tried to go forward, and (49ers linebacker) Ken Norton had my shoulders and he was trying to pull me back. I'm pushing forward, and he's pulling me back and something gave, and that was my knee."
      It was a gruesome sight, and a worldwide audience witnessed it over and over on instant replay: McCallum's left knee had been contorted so badly that his lower leg looked to be dangling by a thread. Blood was quite visible.
      McCallum says he didn't feel pain until he was in the ambulance that took him to a hospital. When he arrived, doctors gave the diagnosis: dislocated knee, ruptured artery, three of four ligaments damaged.
      "I'd dislocated my finger before, but popped it back into place and went on and played," McCallum says. "I thought it was going to be like that. So when (the doctors) said I dislocated my knee, I said, `Yeah, right, I know that. So when will I be able to go back (and play)?' And they said, `We don't get injuries this bad unless somebody's in a car accident.' So I said, `How long before I play?' And he said, `I don't know if you're going to play again.'"
      Soon, the doctors informed McCallum they didn't know if he'd have two legs to walk on again. McCallum remembers being told, "If the surgery doesn't work, there's a small chance we might have to amputate your leg.
      "That's when it hit me how bad and how serious the injury was. It was pretty scary hearing that."
      Thankfully, the surgery worked, but McCallum was confined to a wheelchair for two months, then crutches for another two months. Six more surgeries and painful rehabilitation would follow.
      Still, McCallum held out hope that he would someday return to the NFL.
      "It was really difficult, but I just believed that I was going to be able to come back," he says.
      So optimistic was McCallum that he aimed to return for the start of the 1995 season. But his leg wouldn't let him. The nerve damage was so extensive that he couldn't lift his left foot, and he was told the repaired nerve going from his knee to his foot would only grow approximately 1 inch per month.
      McCallum, 6-foot-2 with long legs, knew time wasn't on his side. The final confirmation that his career was over came the first day of the 1995 season while he was at his home in Los Angeles.
      "I was watching the Raiders' season-opener and (the leg) was feeling good, and I was like, `I think I can come back. I think I'm going to come back,' " McCallum recalls. "And I went outside and there were a bunch of kids playing and running around, and I was trying to race this little girl. As soon as I tried to run, my body wouldn't let me. I was hobbling on one leg. She outran me, and she might have been 5 years old. It was then and there when I said, `My heart says I can, but my body says nope.' "
     -- -- --
      Today, McCallum, his wife, Yvonne, and 2-year-old daughter, Breanna, are living a content life in Henderson. They moved from Los Angeles in 1995 after Napoleon and Yvonne took a vacation to Las Vegas and "drifted off the Strip one day and saw how nice it was here."
      Shorlty after moving to Henderson, McCallum started a business, Digital Pro Graphics, which specializes in electronically producing full-color images for interior and exterior use.
      As for his leg, McCallum says he needs one more surgery to repair his anterior cruciate ligament. Otherwise, he says: "It's fine. I can jog around for 12-15 minutes. I can get around fine."
      McCallum says he has seen replays of the play that ended his career, and it no longer bothers him to watch. He holds nobody responsible for the injury, nor does he mope around lamenting what might have been. Instead, McCallum is grateful for the memories -- and grateful that he still has his left leg.
      "It's still unbelievable and pretty incredible," McCallum says, "that I even got a chance to play professional football, just because of everything I had to go through with the Navy.
      "I've been very fortunate and lucky with the people that I've been associated with and how my life has turned out."
      Of course, there are still times when he thinks he can go out on a football field and perform and compete like the Napoleon McCallum of old. Then memories of that 5-year-old girl racing by brings him back to reality.
      "In your heart, you feel `I still got it.' You still feel like you can (play). But, geez, if I tried to sprint, my whole body would just fall apart," he says, laughing. "I'd be out there in pieces."