Maybe you've already noticed a trend here, but Luke Staley is a little injury-prone. He's only 20, and already he's had so many surgeries that when doctors went in for another minor surgical tune-up last week, they used the same hole they used the last time. One less scar, right? Doctors are thinking about sewing zippers onto his knees for convenience.
Dating back to last season, Staley has played in just two of BYU's last seven games. He was injured for the other five. BYU is 1-6 during that stretch. This season, he played in the opener, missed the second game, played in the third game, missed the fourth game. He's listed as "probable" for today's game against UNLV.
Probable that he'll get hurt?
This is getting to be a habit. Counting four years of high school play, he has completed just one of his last five football seasons. He finished the others on the operating table.
Helmets and pads aren't enough; this guy should play in bubble wrap. Somebody should mark him FRAGILE.
"The strange thing is, he's the most perfectly built guy you're ever going to see," says LaVell Edwards.
If you could design a running back, this is the guy you'd produce. He's 6-foot-1, 225 pounds. He's got calf muscles that look like they were sculpted from granite. Looking at Staley, you figure if anybody's going to get hurt, it's the other guy, but every other week something breaks on Staley. He's as delicate as Limoges china.
Five games into his freshman season in high school he was felled by a shoulder injury that required surgery to repair. He made it to the seventh game of his sophomore season before he suffered a severe bone bruise and never returned to action. He played all of two games as a junior before tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
Somehow, in a total fluke, he managed to play his entire senior season, but in his first full-contact scrimmage at BYU he injured his good shoulder, which would eventually require surgery in the off-season. He missed the fourth game with a stress fracture. In the ninth game he injured his left knee and calf. Two days later doctors performed arthroscopic knee surgery to repair what they thought was merely torn cartilage, but during the surgery they discovered another torn ACL. They repaired the cartilage but left the damaged ACL, thinking he might be able to return to action in a couple of weeks. He missed the last three games of the season, and BYU — 8-1 at the time — lost all of them. He tried to get ready for the Motor City Bowl, but during BYU's first bowl practice he reinjured the knee.
Staley underwent shoulder surgery in early January and knee surgery in late January. Doctors took a tendon from his biceps to fix his shoulder, and they took part of the patellar tendon to fashion another ACL in his knee.
Which brings us to this season. He suffered what was termed a "mild" concussion against Florida State in the opener. It was so mild that he missed the second game against Virginia. He reinjured his right knee in the third game against Air Force and, after undergoing arthroscopic surgery to repair torn cartilage, he missed the fourth game.
"I don't know if there is any explanation for (all the injuries)," says Edwards.
Actually, there is. "Loose joints," says George Curtis, the BYU trainer. "Very loose joints."
According to Curtis, this makes him vulnerable to dislocated shoulders and knee injuries. "His joints just give too much," Curtis explains.
During practice the other day, Staley came to Curtis in obvious pain. "I think I've done something to my thumb," he said, and held up his hand to reveal a thumb that was bent so far back it was touching his forearm.
"Oh, no, we better cut your glove off," said Curtis.
"Just kidding," said Staley.
Curtis explains: "That's how much give he has in his joints. Most people can only pull their thumb back 90 degrees; he can take it all the way back to his forearm."
Joint laxity is apparently an inherited trait. His older brother Dustin also suffered a dislocated shoulder in high school, and another brother, Trent, underwent ACL reconstruction.
A doctor warned Staley after his first injury in high school that it was just the beginning. Staley had loose joints, the doctor explained, and he could expect more problems in the future. He's had major reconstructive surgery on both shoulders and both knees.
The good news, according to Curtis, is that those surgeries correct the joint laxity problem. By repairing the ligaments, they also tighten the joints. Which might explain how all those surgeries have failed to sap his speed and cutting ability.
"If anything, I feel faster," says Staley, who clocked a 4.4 40 in August.
So the sophomore who would be a star — he has 14 touchdowns in the 10 games in which he has played — merely has to stay healthy. But can he?
"What else can I really do?" he says. "I try not to think about it much. I'm looking forward to having a solid rest of the season."
E-mail: drob@desnews.com