Runyan Contemplates Future

Really Lost One · Jan 24, 2009

Football is an unsentimental occupation. You become aware of that on your way in the door, in part because of the aging players you pass leaving by the exit. There is an expiration date on your career - that knowledge is always staring you in the face - but you try to look beyond that and focus on the aspects of the sport that drew you there to begin with. For lack of a better word, you try to remember the love you have for it. And you cannot beat the paycheck.

"You are teasing yourself if you ever think that this is not a cold, hard business," says Runyan, 35. "You just take care of the stuff you can and know that eventually you are going to end up getting screwed. So you just wait for that day to show up."

Runyan adds with a grin: "You just have to deal with it."

Two days before the Eagles flew to Arizona for the NFC Championship Game against the Cardinals, Runyan stood at his locker wearing an old T-shirt that announced: "Overworked and Underappreciated." How appreciated he is at this point by the Eagles is still an open question - Runyan says, "We'll know in about 2 months." But while he laughs and does not consider himself "overworked" per se, you just have to look at the time sheet and decide for yourself: Only Jets quarterback Brett Favre and Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks have played in more consecutive regular-season games, 269 and 208, respectively. And Runyan has done it in the face of extraordinary pain, including a cracked tailbone last year and the swollen knee this year. Chances are a week off would have helped immensely, but he is not someone who ever calls in sick.

"If you can go out there and do it, why not?" Runyan says. "That is just how I am. There is a big element of pride to it. Or stupidity."

No one is better equipped to explain just how extraordinary it is to play with such consistency in the NFL than someone who had longevity at the position. Sisemore says Runyan has "the heartbeat of a champion." Walters says Runyan would be a shoo-in for the Pro Football Hall of Fame if the Eagles had won a Super Bowl at some point, but says that offensive linemen tend to get passed over without that credential. Baldinger just says that 192 games is "a lot of car crashes."

What it comes down to is having a high pain threshold. Runyan says it is "God-given." He has learned to "block out that kind of stuff." Baldinger echoes that, adding that it is just not the "big injuries" you have to deal with but the "little things." Says Baldinger, "You wake up with a jammed neck and you think: 'Where did that come from?' " Episodes such as that just seem to increase in frequency as the years pass and become part of a complicated calculation that weighs heavily on you as you approach the end of your career.

"I have always said, 'You play as long as you can and then 2 more years,' " says Baldinger, a Fox analyst who says that Runyan "played well this year."

"But you know how your body feels. You begin weighing your love of the game with what it is going to do, with how it is going to affect you when you get older. So you are always asking yourself: 'At what point do I stop this?' "

Runyan is well aware of the tradeoff. He has built a house in South Jersey with an elevator in it. And he knows that when he is done playing he will have to trim down to less than 300 pounds to ease the pressure on his joints. But while he is certain there are going to be some enduring physical problems, he says he has been told by other players that "it will be 3 or 4 years once you retire before you realize what you have done to your body." He does not know how long he can continue playing.

He shrugs and says, "I had always wanted to play in the league 10 years. Now I have played 13. So who knows?"

So how do you know when you are done?

Reality creeps up on you.

In the case of Sisemore - who played with the Eagles from 1973 to '84 - it ended with a strained bicep injury that occurred during the first game of his final season. He came back to play in Week 8 but says, "My last year was basically a train wreck. My shoulder basically quit." But he says it was hard letting go, if only because he found himself removed from the brotherhood of the locker room. Today, the 57-year-old Sisemore says that while he's "extremely allergic to needles" because of the injections he had to take as a player, he says that his doctor has told him: "Sisemore, you are not in bad shape for an 80-year-old man."

Walters says it was a "2-year process" before he finally hung it up. He remembers facing what he calls a "nondescript defensive end" and having his hands full. "He was getting up beneath me," says Walters, who began his career with the Bengals in 1972 and played with the Eagles from 1975 to '83. The 60-year-old Walters says it finally occurred to him that day, "Well, I am getting old." While he says he was lucky to leave the sport "wear and tear free," he understands how hard it is to walk away from something that is such a big part of your life.

Baldinger says you "lie to yourself" in order to continue playing. At the end of a career that spanned 11 seasons with the Cowboys, Colts and Eagles, he tried to hang on for yet another year in the league in 1993, when he failed to pass his physical. When he looked back on it a year later, the 49-year-old Baldinger says he was happy that he did not get signed again. While he can no longer play tennis or pickup basketball the way he once did, he dropped 50 pounds from his final playing weight of 302 and has adhered to a yoga program that has rejuvenated his joints.

"A player is the last to know when it is time," Baldinger says. "All a player is looking at is his body of work. And he is thinking: 'I know I can still do this.' "

Sisemore says, "I know what Runyan is going through, bless his heart. But at some point, he will come to the end and be able to say, 'You had a good, hard ride.' "
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http://www.philly.com/philly/sports...gles_veteran_Runyan_contemplating_future.html

I wish that we could've won the Superbowl with the core that has been here for so long, but that might not happen. Runyan is still a good offensive lineman for the most part, but he's fallen off a bit. My guess is that either Runyan or Thomas will not be back next year. Not sure who will leave or who I want to leave, but it'll be sad to think about. He's been a staple for our line for some many years, along with Thomas.

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Runyan Contemplates Future

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