I don't mean to imply that my injury was as serious as Brees'. In truth I have no clue how bad his was, I just know that mine was bad. The first time I walked on real snow was when I was 22 years old, spending a winter in Boston, MA. Slipped on some wooden steps, and went through a wooden railing. Landed where my shoulder was bent back towards my spine. Dislocated, rotator cuff torn, arm dead.

I spent fourteen months doing pretty faithful physical therapy when all was said and done. To be honest, and with all the (un)wisdom of youth, I stopped working it before I should have and never got back all the mobility. I can reach my left hand to roughly the center of my back from below. With my right (injured) arm, I can reach a bit above my beltline. Since my main concerns at the time were push-ups, bench press, etc. I didn't notice any real loss. I had stopped pitching years before and my current sport was Rugby, so again I didn't notice any real loss. I sure noticed when I tried to play catch. My whole throwing motion felt like it was "wrong." When I tried to put the kind of zip on the ball I was used to, it was like I was trying to throw with my off-hand...just wrong and shortly thereafter, painful.

Funny how when you're young, you can accept those things. Thanks for asking. I recognize that Brees has much better doctors than I had access to. He makes a ton more money and his full-time job is about physical fitness, so he can devote a lot more time to recovery than I can. In my opinion, his recovery will be all about how much be puts into it and what kind of man he is. What I've read so far is encouraging.