Career-Savers and Groundbreakers: Meet the Alabama Crimson Tide's longtime orthopedic surgeons

Five months after a successful hip surgery, the Miami Dolphins took Tua Tagovailoa fifth overall in the 2020 NFL Draft. Tua's story is the latest example of career-saving work from Alabama’s primary orthopedic surgeons, Dr. Lyle Cain and foot and ankle specialist Norman Waldrop. Players like Eddie Lacy, Kenyan Drake and Anfernee Jennings were among the previous success stories. Now, Tagovailoa can be added to that list, too. *** A Mountain Brook native, Lyle Cain grew up wanting to play football at Alabama under Bear Bryant and later gave consideration to joining the team as a walk-on linebacker under Ray Perkins. Until heading to Tuscaloosa for an unofficial recruiting visit. “I found out that I wasn’t the right size or speed to be playing college football,” Cain joked. “It was pretty obvious when I saw Derrick Thomas, Cornelius Bennett, Bill Condon and some of the other players.” Instead, Cain attended Alabama as a student, got a degree in chemical engineering and later a medical degree from UAB. It was around that time that one of Cain’s closest friends, former Alabama player John Cassimus, began making a bold prediction that is still funny to Cain two decades later. “He kept telling all of our friends in college that I was going to be the next Dr. Andrews,” Cain said. “And it’s kind of ironic how it worked out.” Cain did a fellowship with Andrews in 1999, was invited to join the practice shortly thereafter and has established himself as one of the most respected orthopedic surgeons in the country over the last 20 years while leading the way for the world-renowned Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopaedic Center. *** Waldrop came onto the radar for Alabama in 2012, even before he joined the Andrews Sports Medicine group. While completing a fellowship under renowned foot and ankle surgeon Thomas Clanton in Colorado, Waldrop was part of the team that performed Lacy’s toe fusion surgery during the 2012 offseason. With the toe issue resolved, Lacy ran for 1,322 yards and 17 touchdowns during the Tide’s 2012 national championship season and went on to play five seasons in the NFL. Waldrop has become a well-known figure on a national level in recent years, specifically for being a leading figure behind the evolution of the tightrope procedure that’s used to repair significant high ankle sprains. If not for the hip injury, the talk with Tagovailoa likely would have been centered on Waldrop’s work on Tagovailoa’s ankle. In the past, high ankle injuries like the one Tagovailoa sustained last year would typically cause players to miss at least two months. Tagovailoa was able to get back just three weeks after suffering that injury versus Tennessee. While Alabama lost to the eventual national champs, LSU, Tagovailoa threw for 418 yards and four touchdowns while helping the Tide accumulate 541 yards of total offense and 41 points. One week later, Tagovailoa was as sharp as ever, going 14 of 18 for 256 yards with two touchdown passes in two quarters against Mississippi State before going down with the hip injury. It was the latest standout work from Waldrop, who has performed several other notable surgeries including the tightrope procedure on Tagovailoa’s other ankle in 2018 and the surgery that repaired Kenyan Drake’s broken and dislocated ankle in 2014. It was just 15 months after suffering that gruesome ankle injury that Drake had his critical kickoff return for a touchdown during the Tide’s national championship game win over Clemson, a play that featured Drake running faster than he ever had at Alabama according to the team’s GPS tracking system (22 miles per hour). “Everybody’s always talking about how, when they’re doing (physical therapy), they’re like, ‘Wow. Your ankle’s in really good shape,’” said Drake, who now plays for the Arizona Cardinals. “I’m like, ‘Duh. I had surgery from the best of the best.’” *** Framed inside the Andrews Sports Medicine clinic is a Drew Brees helmet that includes a message from the star quarterback. Thanks for saving my career! Drake would be able to say something similar. So would players like Lacy and Jennings. Now, Tagovailoa can, too. Like with Drake’s injury in 2014, there were questions about Tagovailoa’s long-term outlook back when he first got hurt. However, like with Drake, the process with Tagovailoa is at a much more positive point than many outsiders would have imagined when the injury first happened. It’s an outcome that may not have been possible without the work of Cain and the Andrews Sports Medicine group throughout this process. “That’s a case that if you’re not careful can go bad in a hurry,” Allen said. “And because of Dr. Cain and just his network of connections and the Andrews Sports Medicine clinic and being able to offer us that type of care, he’s had a really good outcome.” Full written story from Matt Zenitz can be found here: Video produced and edited by Laura Goldman (lgoldman@al.com)