Turley goes on IR, is out for season

Turley leaves camp to get ailing back checked

by RamWraith

By Jim Thomas
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/02/2004
MACOMB, Ill. - A disappointed and frustrated Kyle Turley headed back to St. Louis on Sunday for further tests and evaluation of a back problem that doesn't seem to want to go away.

Meanwhile, the Rams are bringing in reinforcements for an offensive line that has been short-handed since the start of training camp. Offensive tackle Greg Randall arrived in Macomb early Sunday evening for a physical, and later was signed to a one-year contract. He is on the practice field this morning.

Randall started 16 games for the Houston Texans last year. He played his first three seasons in the NFL for the New England Patriots, and started at right tackle in Super Bowl XXXVI against the Rams.

The Rams also were attempting to bring in guard-center Chris Dishman, the former Arizona Cardinal, to help their depth on the interior of the line. But as of Sunday evening, the Rams had been unable to contact Dishman, causing some team officials to wonder if he was still interested in playing.

Before heading to St. Louis, Turley told reporters that he considered the latest setback career threatening.

"It was a threat to my career last year," Turley said. "But for it to have possibly reoccurred is definitely a bigger threat."

Turley experienced nagging pain in his hip last season. After the season, the source of the pain was diagnosed as a herniated disk in his lower back, and Turley underwent surgery in March.

Coach Mike Martz pronounced Turley fit at the outset of camp, but Turley has practiced only about half the time over the first five days here at Western Illinois University because of back pain.

"I came out here in hopes of everything being OK," Turley said. "And everything kind of felt fine. But I went through the first day of practice, and it didn't seem like it was completely right.

"I expressed my feelings about it. The idea was to come back out and see how it goes. We did it, and I don't know if that was necessarily the right thing to do."

In addition to getting checked out in St. Louis, Turley said he might see a specialist in Los Angeles.

"We're attacking it right now, with some heavy anti-inflammatories," he said. "And we're going to see these people and see what they have to say."

Turley had an MRI Saturday in Macomb and termed the results "not good."

Turley added, "I'm not doing the surgery again. I'm not going through that again."

With or without surgery, Turley is concerned that any additional deterioration of the disk won't leave much cushion between the vertebrae.

"The biggest fear is bone on bone," Turley said. "I don't want that to happen and be a hunchback...
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-08-02-2004, 06:52 AM
Can this marriage be saved?

by RamWraith

By Bill Coats
Of the Post-Dispatch
Wednesday, Jun. 01 2005

Call him irrationally stubborn. Call him sadly delusional. Or call him
cunningly shrewd as he attempts to position himself for future work in the NFL.

Whatever the proper label, offensive tackle Kyle Turley wavers only slightly in
his belief that his days with the Rams are not about to end. "Stranger things
have happened, so I'm not going to rule it out," he said. "But I don't
anticipate that happening."

Realistically, Turley appears to be on the verge of becoming an ex-Ram -
perhaps as early as today. June 2 is the first day that NFL teams can release
players and spread the effect on the salary cap over two years rather than one.
A year ago today, the Rams cut quarterback Kurt Warner, their Super Bowl MVP in
2000.

Although he reports that the recovery from the back injury that sidelined him
for the 2004 season "is going really well," Turley figures to be the headliner
on this year's hit list. "If they do release me, then they'd be making a big
mistake at this point," said Turley, 28. "The back's feeling really good. The
biggest problem right now is the ... severe atrophy of my right leg muscles
that I've been struggling to recover from.

"That's a rigorous and long process, but it's coming back slowly but surely."

Still, the team appears to have little use for Turley, especially considering
the heft of his contract: He signed a six-year, $26.5 million deal after the
Rams acquired him from New Orleans in March 2003 for their second-round draft
pick in '04. Had Turley been released before today, the team would have
suffered a $7.29 million salary cap hit this year. Now, only $1.82 million
would count against the '05 cap, with the remaining $5.47 million applied next
year.

Coach Mike Martz declined on Wednesday to discuss Turley's status, and attempts
to reach Jay Zygmunt, the Rams' president of football operations, were
unsuccessful.

Turley's agent, Tom Condon, did not return a phone message.

Orlando Pace, finally locked up in a long-term deal, is one of the league's
premier left tackles. The Rams took Florida State's Alex Barron in the first
round of the draft, and Martz installed him as the No. 1 right tackle - the job
that Turley held during the 2003 season.

Grant Williams, Blaine Saipaia and Scott Tercero also have started at tackle.
So, depth shouldn't be a major issue.

Turley came to St. Louis after five seasons with the Saints. A first-round
draft pick (seventh overall) out of San Diego State in 1998, Turley was a
starter from Day...
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-06-02-2005, 04:23 AM
Turley is released after failing physical - PD

by Nick

Turley is released after failing physical
By Bill Coats
Of the Post-Dispatch
Monday, Jun. 06 2005

Kyle Turley won't be playing offensive tackle, tight end, defensive tackle or
anything else for the Rams in 2005. Turley has failed a physical exam
administered in Arizona, where he had been rehabbing the back injury that cost
him the entire 2004 season, and has been released.

Officially, Turley was designated as "waived - failed physical," which means
the Rams owe him $250,000 but that the effect on the salary cap is the same as
if he simply had been released. The "hit" is $1.82 million this year and $5.47
million in 2006.

Turley signed a six-year, $26.5 million deal with the Rams after he was
acquired in a trade with New Orleans in March of 2003.

Turley, 28, underwent surgery on a herniated disc in March of 2004 after
starting all 16 games at right tackle the previous season, his first with the
Rams. Turley reinjured his back early in training camp last July and was placed
on the injured reserve list Aug. 28.

Additional surgery was not performed, and Turley said in a recent interview
with the Post-Dispatch that he had been training daily since early January at
the Athletes Performance Institute in Tempe, Ariz. After dropping some 65
pounds from his playing weight, down to 235, the 6-foot-5 Turley reported that
he'd added about 30 pounds and hoped to play in the NFL this year.

Still, Turley acknowledged that he probably couldn't add enough bulk to man an
offensive line position this year, so he hinted that he'd be interested in a
different position - perhaps tight end or defensive end.

"As far as the team goes, I don't know what their thoughts are," he said.
"Obviously, they signed a contract with me to play offensive line, and they
don't know what I would do at another position. So, that's probably a big
question in their mind. ...

"(But) it might take another year possibly to continue putting the weight on,
making it good weight, and not just going out and eating a bunch of Krispy
Kreme doughnuts and burritos at 2 in the morning, to get back up to 300
pounds."

It probably never would've gotten that far with the Rams, particularly after
Turley's well-publicized offseason clash with coach Mike Martz. Their rift
began when Martz became irritated that Turley wasn't returning his phone calls
after leaving training camp in Macomb, Ill., to seek evaluations of his back
injury.

A conversation between the two in mid-December in Martz's Rams Park office
escalated into a shouting match and ultimately led Martz to file a complaint...
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-06-07-2005, 12:57 AM
Turley still rehabbing from back injury

by RamWraith

By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com

Still at least three months away from being able to pass an NFL physical, and about 40 pounds under his normal playing weight, offensive tackle Kyle Turley has been released by the St. Louis Rams after failing a team-administered physical exam.

The split with Turley, who officially appeared on the NFL's transaction wire Monday as "waived-failed physical" following an exam in Arizona, where he has been rehabilitating from a debilitating back injury, ends a turbulent stint with the team. The bile between the seven-year veteran right tackle and coach Mike Martz spilled over into a much-publicized shouting match last December.

Following the imbroglio, precipitated in part when the coach suggested that Turley was not returning his phone calls and updating him on his physical progress, Martz filed a complaint with NFL security. In the complaint, Martz alleged Turley threatened him.

Even without the bitterness, it is doubtful that Turley, who is suffering from a herniated disc, would have returned to the club. The poisoned relationship between Turley and Martz, though, cemented the fact the tackle would not return to the Rams, even though he suggested as recently as last week that he was amenable to playing in St. Louis again.

The only question about Turley's status with the Rams was the timing of when the club chose to release him.

The addition of Turley to the free agent market further crowds the pool of veterans at the tackle position. The key difference, though, is that veterans such as Chris Terry, Kenyatta Jones, Scott Gragg and Aaron Gibson are physically cleared to play in 2005. Turley is probably several months from having even a remote chance of getting back onto a field in 2005, and might have to wait until 2006.

Within the last week, Dr. Robert Watkins, a Los Angeles back specialist who performed the surgery on Turley's disc in 2004, examined the offensive linemen and apprised him he needed several more months of rehabilitation. At that time, Turley remained optimistic he would play football again at some point.

"The back is feeling really good," Turley said. "The biggest problem right now is the severe atrophy of my right leg muscles, and I've been struggling to overcome that. That's a rigorous and long process, but it's coming back, slowly but surely."

Turley, 28, has made it clear he does not plan to retire. He will continue his rehabilitation and hopes to resume his career at some point, even if it means changing positions. A few months ago, Turley suggested he might come back as a defensive end, a position where he would not need as much weight, and which would submit his balky back to less strain.

The former San Diego State star, acquired by the Rams from New Orleans in 2003, had surgery on a herniated disc...
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-06-07-2005, 01:40 PM
Rams' Turley says he may retire

by RamDez

Rams' Turley says he may retire

BY STEVE KORTE

Knight Ridder Newspapers

ST. LOUIS - (KRT) - Offensive tackle Kyle Turley, who will sit out the entire 2004 season for the St. Louis Rams due to a back injury, is mulling retirement.

The 28-year-old Turley left training camp three weeks ago to seek out the opinion of several back specialists, and was told that he will likely require a second operation on the herniated disc in his back if he ever wants to return to the football field.

If Turley opts for the operation, he probably wouldn`t be healthy enough to play until midway through the 2005 season.

ESPN.com reported that Turley`s friends say he is not yet mentally prepared for the rigors of such a lengthy rehabilitation.

There`s also no guarantee that the surgery will permanently correct Turley`s chronic back problems.

Turley, appearing on Fox Sports Net`s "Best Damn Sports Show Period" on Thursday, said it was 50-50 whether he`d ever play again.

"There`s the quality of life after football," Turley said in an interview on FSN Midwest. "I want to be able to pick my kids up when I`m 40 years old and carry them around."

Turley failed to return several telephone calls from Rams coach Mike Martz in the week after he left training camp.

"At the time, when things we`re going on, and Mike came on the air and talked about how I didn`t call him back, I was traveling around," Turley said. "And, it was a situation that I had not been used to dealing with. I was angry in some cases that this (injury) happened again and in other cases very disheartened. I didn`t return a lot of telephone calls."

If Turley does retire, the Rams could seek the return of a portion of the $10 million signing bonus he received when they acquired him in a trade with the New Orleans Saints in March, 2003.

Turley has been placed on injured reserve for this season. He`ll count $2.36 million against the Rams` salary cap for 2004.

Turley was a model of durability before the back injury. He had missed only one game in six previous NFL seasons.

The loss of Turley and center Dave Wohlabaugh, who was released after failing to comeback from off-season hip surgery, was a big blow for the Rams` offensive line.

Compounding matters is the holdout of Pro Bowl left tackle Orlando Pace, who has yet to sign the one-year, $7.05 million tender as the team`s franchise agent.

The Rams are in the process of finalizing their roster. They must trim 12 players by 3 p.m. on Sunday to get down to the NFL regular-season limit of 53 players....
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-09-05-2004, 04:59 AM

Announcement

Turley goes on IR, is out for season

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