This arm has guts

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/06/2011 (5249 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Buck PIERCE plans on taking a moment Friday night as he runs on to the field at Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton to have a little chat with himself.

“I did it last week when I ran on to the field for the pre-season game and I’ll do it again for my first real game back,” said Pierce, looking every bit the man playing a boy’s game sporting a touch of scruff and cracking the relaxed, confident smile pro athletes tend to own. “I’m gonna tell myself, ‘Way to go, Buck. You got here. Now what are you going to do with it?’ The answer is to win a Grey Cup for Winnipeg.”

Pierce took a few moments on Wednesday following Blue Bombers practice to discuss the odyssey he’s been through since having his arm wrecked on the field in Regina at last year’s Labour Day game.

Pierce dislocated his passing elbow when he fell and landed on a helmet in an odd way. The immediate prognosis was not good.

As in, “You’ll likely never throw again. Certainly not at a professional football level.”

Pierce, however, has been told before that his career is over.

“Yep. From credible sources and not-so credible sources. I’ve taken positives from this situation and plan on building from it,” said Pierce. “But I won’t tell you it was all fun. There were some dark days and some hard days. This wasn’t an easy rehab. It was the longest of my career. But I got to learn about Winnipeg and the people by staying here all winter trying to get ready. Like I said, I’m taking the positives from this. I’m using this to get stronger.”

Pierce can remember the injury clearly despite the pain and then the painkillers.

“It was late in the game and I knew something wasn’t right because they were calling for ambulances and all that stuff. It was as serious as it can be at that point,” tells Pierce. “I knew they had to do something but didn’t know what. You could see the arm was dislocated and out of its socket.

“So they took me in. It’s Labour Day so the doctors and nurses are all wearing green and white and hooting and hollering. And then I roll in still in my full Bombers uniform. They couldn’t even take my pads off because of the arm. I was still in quite a bit of pain at that point. I called my parents to tell them I was OK. They got the X-rays back and saw that there were some fractures in the elbow, too. My arm was still out. I told them to knock me out before they put it back in. I didn’t want to be awake for that sucker.”

Pierce awoke to find a number of Bombers staff members as well as doctors surrounding him. It was then that he was delivered news no athlete ever wants to hear.

“It was tough. It was emotional. At that point no one is really telling you anything and then someone steps forward and says, ‘There’s a strong possibility this isn’t going to come back. Probably not to the point where you can throw a football for a living,'” said Pierce with more than a little emotion in his voice. “Looking back like this is tough. All the negativity. All the people and naysayers that don’t really know me. The road was hard. People saying, ‘Buck’s not our guy and we need to move on.’ That fuelled my fire to get back. It it was for one play or one game or five years, I knew I was going to play again.”

The story goes Pierce did not take the news well and underwent a swell of different emotions. The quarterback steered around the question and that’s understandable.

But when the crying and screaming was done, Pierce set his mind on one thing and set it hard.

“It never crept into my mind that I’d be done. By the time Al (Bombers athletic therapist Al Couture) got to the hospital, I let him look at the X-rays and then I was like, ‘How many weeks? What’s the game plan? Can I get started on Monday?'”

Pierce has that irrepressible quality people like in their heroes. Running on to the field with his Bombers to open against the Tiger-Cats is a testament to his mental strength.

“Having someone tell you this is the end, after a career like mine that’s been interrupted and with me still wanting to accomplish so much more, it’s not easy,” said Pierce. “But it’s not what defines me. I won’t let it. I have things to do in this game and I’m going to do them.”

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca