Negotiation and Networking

Cade McNown, the 23-year-old Chicago Bears quarterback, is currently recovering from the separated shoulder injury he suffered at the end of October in his team’s game at Philadelphia.

A separated shoulder is when the tendons and ligaments that hold the joint together are torn, causing the collarbone itself to detach from the shoulder. Although very different from a dislocated shoulder, when the ball of the joint pops out of place, it takes around the same time to heal; between two and three months.

As often happens with athletes, however, Cade McNown is expected to have fully recovered from his separated shoulder within just six weeks, having only needed rest and physical therapy to fix the painful injury. The football player was lucky; some patients require surgery to reattach the ligaments if they fail to heal of their own accord.

Cade McNown suffered the injury in a tackle incident involving him and Philadelphia Eagles’ linebacker Mike Caldwell on the half way line. Unfortunately for McNown, the artificial turf at the Veterans Stadium is known for being much tougher than those with natural grass, with many players likening a fall there to falling on asphalt.

Doctors immediately diagnosed a serious shoulder injury, after assessing the swelling and pain caused by the tackle, and McNown was told to rest the affected left side for several weeks. There were fears among medical experts that the quarterback had torn his rotator cuff, the name given to the muscles and tendons that actually hold the shoulder together, a much more serious injury and one that would have seen him out of the game for several months.

Even now that the injury has effectively healed, he still faces some tough physical therapy sessions to get back to full fitness and to get his throwing arm back to 100% power. Many people who have suffered this kind of injury manage to regain complete use of the affected joint, although there is a chance that the young star will have a slightly misshapen left shoulder for the rest of his life.

Cade McNown was drafted fifth, the highest placed passer for the Bears for 17 years since Jim McMahon. Originally from California, McNown grew up in Oregon where he excelled at all sports and set a pole vault record at his high school which still stands today; over 15 feet. While playing college ball at UCLA he was chosen for all-state and all-American as both a safety and a quarterback.