Scott Brumfield's health is settled. His career comes next.
Brumfield, the Bengals' offensive lineman who suffered partial paralysis resulting from a spinal injury last Nov. 3 in a game at Baltimore, surged forward in his recovery Thursday when he received official medical clearance to play football.
''It's a hell of a story. It really is,'' Bengals head coach Bruce Coslet said. ''A couple of months ago he was struggling to walk on crutches.''
''Right now,
I feel 100 percent normal and thankful beyond words that I'm able to do the stuff I'm doing,'' Brumfield said.
Whether Brumfield will resume playing for the Bengals is uncertain. As an unrestricted free agent, he can bargain with any team. But, he said, ''My heart is with Cincinnati. This accident has made my roots deeper here because of the support from the community, coaches and friends. This is where I'd like to stay.''
''We're going to (negotiate) and see if we can get him to agree to come back. I think we can,'' Bengals General Manager Mike Brown said.
Privately, team officials worried about Brumfield re-injuring himself in some way and wondered whether he should play again. More than once, the question was asked rhetorically, ''If he were your son, would you let him?''
But Brumfield was whole enough to impress the battery of physicians that examined him - Dr. Robert Heidt Jr., the Bengals' team orthopedist; Dr. Bill Tobler, a neurologist at Christ Hospital; and Dr. Richard Watson, Christ Hospital's director of rehabilitation.
''They consider him to be functioning at normal levels,'' Bengals trainer Paul Sparling said. ''They detect no weakness, no balance deficits or anything else that would preclude him from working out to play football.''
Brumfield also executed offensive line-related drills during a brief workout at the Bengals' Spinney Field headquarters. Coslet termed the session ''encouraging,'' though he emphasized that Brumfield wasn't being pounded on by hostile defensive linemen.
Sparling said it looked obvious that Brumfield hadn't played football for a while, but has ''clearly been working hard and is far beyond where we anticipated he would be at this stage.''
Brumfield, 26, said he has progressed past physical therapy and is striving to reach ''football shape'' at his Spanish Fork, Utah, home by lifting weights, running and honing the quick movements a lineman must master.
''His recovery appears complete. That, for us, is a great thing to see,'' Brown said. ''Some of us remember looking at him last year, wondering if he would even be able to get around for the rest of his life.''
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