Jimbo Elrod: 'High-impact football' results in a lifetime of extreme arthritis for former OU linebacker

Print this page

Jimbo Elrod: 'High-impact football' results in a lifetime of extreme arthritis for former OU linebacker

BY BILL HAISTEN World Sports Writer
Sunday, March 18, 2012
3/18/12 at 10:59 AM

Related Story:

For athletes recovering from serious injuries, it's mind over matter

Kristin Canady: The hope of a scholarship motivates Skiatook senior who sustained knee injury

Phabian Glasco: Less than two months after gruesome arm injury, a return to the Hornet lineup

Trent Smith: Ten months after serious knee injury, there is one goal: 'I just want to run again'

Megan Melott: After 12 surgeries, rehab becomes routine for TU junior - a cancer survivor

Kye Staley: After severe knee injury, an improbable comeback is capped by a TD against Baylor

In 20 years of organized football, Jimbo Elrod had a glorious career. He was an All-State performer at East Central High School. At the University of Oklahoma, he was an All-American linebacker for Sooner teams that captured the 1974 and 1975 national championships. He played for five seasons in the NFL.

What the 57-year-old Elrod has today are great memories - and constant pain.

Extreme arthritis affects nearly all of his joints. His shoulders are "devastated," he says, "and my hips are definitely affected. I don't know when I'll need a hip replacement, but I'm sure it's coming."

"I'm lucky to have a fantastic hot tub, and I'm in it for 15 minutes every morning," Elrod said. "I couldn't live comfortably without it. If I drive from Tulsa to Norman to see a game, I have to stretch and get loose after I get out of the car. Driving is no good on the hips."

Elrod's daughter, Chanel, now is an OU cheerleader and has had a knee surgery. If he had a son, Elrod confessed a few years ago, the boy would not have been allowed to play football.

"I love the game," Elrod told the Tulsa World in 1998. " ... But it's a brutal game."

"High-impact football resulted in most of my problems," he said last week.

In effect, Elrod will be in rehab for the rest of his life. The only way to function with arthritis is to remain active, he says.

"The No. 1 thing that helps me is to keep some regimen of a consistent workout," Elrod said. "Keeping the body moving is the best way to fight the onslaught of pain from arthritis. Plus, staying hydrated is important. Drinking a lot of water.

"It has gotten worse with age, but it's not debilitating because I stay on top of it. If you have arthritis and you're not an active person, it will eat you up."

Associated Images:

Former OU All-American Jimbo Elrod, 57, said his shoulder joints are "devastated" by arthritis after a long football career. CORY YOUNG / Tulsa World