"I still remember that last hit," Turner said yesterday by cell phone from Birmingham, Ala. "It was at Veterans Stadium. Both of my arms went numb. It didn't last for very long, maybe 30 seconds, but it was a very, very scary feeling."
Turner was not a guy who scared easily on the football field. His position called for him to lower his head and throw his body into the sternum of some monstrous lineman or ferocious linebacker to create space for a running back to slip through.
Turner got his first "stinger" as a freshman at Alabama. He missed a season, using the time to build up his body. He returned and played well enough to be New England's third-round pick in the 1992 NFL draft. Turner signed with the Eagles as a restricted free agent in 1995.
Throughout his career, the "stingers" came along every so often. They were part of the job, just like getting his "bell rung" - which is football jargon for a concussion.
A "stinger" is not the slight inconvenience its name suggests. It is damage to the spine that affects the nerves.
Turner missed three games after a "stinger" early in the 1999 season. He came back and then delivered that final hit. The resulting injury left him no choice but to seek expert medical advice.
"I had stenosis [narrowing] of the spine around the C-4 and C-5 [vertebrae]," Turner said. "It was compressing on that nerve in my neck, and the margin for error became smaller and smaller every time. You get to the point one more bad hit could be the one. I saw a couple of doctors who said I could play again. Then I saw one who said, 'You'd be an idiot to go out there again. One hit and you could be paralyzed.' "
