Bill Condon likely will limp back to the Alabama huddle a few times Saturday afternoon, dragging his leg like a dog that has been hit by a car. When the huddle breaks, though, the limp magically will have disappeared. Condon will be grunting and snorting once again, prepared to destroy whoever dares to line up across from him.
Condon simply treats injuries as he does opponents and enemies — with disdain. He refuses to acknowledge them.
By all acounts, Condon should not be in the lineup Saturday for the Southeastern Conference opener against the University of Florida. Nor should he be playing this season.
“Actually, I’m just lucky to be alive,” he said before practice. “Sometimes, I really wonder about myself.”
Although the limp is a result of major reconstructive surgery on his knee five months ago — surgery that was expected to sideline him this season — it was an earlier injury that nearly caused much more serious damage.
He was stabbed.
In order to avoid paying to park at a Beastie Boys concert in March, Condon and two friends left their car down a darkened sidestreet a few blocks away from the Birmingham Civic Center. When they returned to the car, they were greeted by a gang of local toughs.
When one of them flashed a switchblade, and obviously they had Condon’s group outnumbered, his friends started a retreat. Condon, though, like a good offensive lineman, waded into the fight.
“They paid the price,” said Condon, smiling slyly but declining to provide further details because legal action still is pending.
He was stabbed twice in his shoulder, sending him into the hospital for a brief stay. Luckily, though, the wound was not serious. He spent a week on his back recuperating, but after stitches were removed, he was ready for the start of spring practice the next week.
“We were in the wrong part of town. The wrong place at the wrong time,” he said. “Looking back on it now, I feel fortunate to still be around.”
Although he was ready for spring football, his was cut short. Even though he was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference guard as a junior last season, he still practiced with abandon, like a freshman trying to make the team.
On one blocking play, he was hit from behind, tearing both the medial collateral and posterior cruciate ligaments, a very serious knee injury.
After surgery that night, Coach Bill Curry came to visit, hoping to console him.
“Well, Bill, it’ll be great to have you for the 1988 season,” Curry told him, assuming Condon would not return this year.
“No, sir,” Condon replied, “I’ll be playing this year.”
The surgery and a resulting infection, caused his weight to drop from 268 to 228, weakening him considerably. Strep throat also slowed his rehabilitation.
“For awhile, I felt like my whole life had been taken away,” Condon said. “It was a helpless feeling, but when everyone just assumed I had to be redshirted this year, it make me want to come back all the more.”
Although Condon actually is soft spoken, well-mannered and courteous, challenging him changes his mood radically, just as it does when it is time to compete.
Two years ago, he and his former roommate were disciplined when they got into a fight in their dorm room and literally tore it apart. When they were done, the room needed major repairs, yet the two remained friends.
An assistant coach last season sent a substitute into the game to replace him after Alabama had assured itself of victory. Condon, though, wasn’t ready to leave. He came off the field fuming, shouting at the assistant. Ray Perkins, then the head coach, had to intervene to prevent a full-scale problem.
Condon, who has never been afraid to question authority, had challenged incoming coach Bill Curry and some of his new rules before practice even began this summer. Curry, though, has become Condon’s biggest supporter.
“He and Jerry Kramer his teammate with the Green Bay Packers are the two toughest players I’ve ever been around,” Curry said. “Kramer had his stomach operated on once and they found a piece of wood inside. There were times when Bill should have been in a wheelchair this year, but he was in the weight room instead.
Condon has been a starter since the sixth game of his freshman season, missing only one start since then. That was because of arthroscopic knee surgery. He probably would have played that game, too, but because it was a non-conference opponent, Perkins convinced him to sit out.
Even in high school, he impressed enough people with his never-quit attitude that he was named Class AAAA Player of the Year in Alabama — an oddity for a lineman.
“He still is in a lot of pain, although he won’t admit it now,” Curry said. “And he limps, but only after the play is over. Before the play, he just blocks it out. I’ve never seen such a competitor.”
