Gunshot victim Brinkley renews NFL quest

"When you have a bullet in your chest, your mind makes you feel like you are feeling stuff," says Brinkley, 23. "So I went to the doctor a month ago, because I thought I felt the bullet in there. But the doctor said, 'No, that's just tightness. Trust me.' "

Still not cleared to lift weights, Brinkley is deep into the rehabilitation process. Senior physical therapist Mark Greenwood works with Brinkley at the NovaCare Rehabilitation City Line Center and says, "Curtis has progressed quite well . . . he has excelled through each phase of the process." Brinkley also works out under the supervision of trainer Tony Fulton, who has worked with a number of pro athletes. Fulton - or as he is known, "Coach Tone" - says he received a phone call some weeks ago from the recuperating Brinkley saying he was "bored." Since then, Brinkley has been working out with Fulton 6 days a week at the LA Fitness Club on City Avenue. Club general manager Robert Sargent says of Brinkley: "He looks to be back where he was."

Fulton has been encouraged by what he has seen. "We started doing the stuff we could - working on his core, working on his flexibility and doing some running," Fulton says. "But a part of what we also do is build him back up mentally. Sometimes you can be physically fine, but mentally way off. So we have to get him beyond the incident."

That is exactly what Brinkley would like to do. Were it not for the dreams he occasionally has that remind of his ordeal, he has moved on from the shooting in Elkins Park in an effort to pick up where he left off with Chargers. Head coach Norv Turner and running-backs coach Ollie Wilson both had been impressed with him. He became friendly with some of his new teammates, drew from the knowledge of star running back LaDainian Tomlinson and well . . . pinched himself. Even since he was a boy on that big lot he had dreamed of becoming an NFL player.

Brinkley smiles and says, "When I saw my locker in San Diego, I felt like a big kid."

The plan is to move everyone to California: Jeanette, the baby, his mother, even his grandmother if she would like to come. Once, Brinkley spoke to her about one day buying her a new home, but the 69-year-old woman told him that "the only way I am ever leaving here is in a box." She has had her place in Abbottsford Homes since 1977.

Brinkley understands.

It is her home.

And wherever he goes it also will be his.

"Of any place in the world, this is where I am safe," says Brinkley, who looks over at the window ledge decorated with some of his high school trophies. In the window beyond it, some kids run by in football jerseys.

Hearing that, his grandmother smiles and says: "God has a purpose for us, and we are not leaving here until it is complete." *