By JEFF LEGWOLD
The Tennessean

Kelly Holcomb has looked down the fast lane of professional football, seen the hurdles stretched before him, and left them all behind to manufacture a nine-year NFL career.

He was released five times on his way to being named starting quarterback of the Cleveland Browns last season.

Two more barriers now stand before him: his surgically repaired right (throwing) shoulder; and Cleveland's new $25 million man, Jeff Garcia, whom Browns Coach Butch Davis has already named the starting quarterback.

"I told my wife and my parents that's just the way it goes with me, I guess," Holcomb said. "It's just the way it is right now. And that's the way I like it. It's a challenge. I've been around this league nine years now, I'll keep working."

First the shoulder. Holcomb woke in the early morning hours of Feb. 2 with a blazing pain cascading down his right shoulder. He struggled to lift his arm.

He had thrown at his alma mater, Middle Tennessee State, the day before and initially believed the soreness would go away.

"For the last couple years, it's always kind of been nagging, one of those things, once you get warmed up, you kind of forget about it," Holcomb said. "But that morning, I was really worried about it.

"I was like 'I've ruptured my rotator cuff,' and you know that's major. If you're a throwing athlete, that's something major, and I was just praying to God that wasn't what it was."

He had torn the labrum, the cartilage that helps stabilize the shoulder joint. Holcomb returned to Cleveland where Browns team physician Anthony Miniaci inserted a biodegradable screw to repair the injury.

Holcomb said his recovery could take anywhere from four to six months. It would have been far longer had he actually injured his rotator cuff.

"I'm usually an impatient person, but I have to be patient with this," Holcomb said. "If I mess around with this, then I'll be out longer than six months. I just got to get it back ready so I can go back out there on the football field. And then when I get an opportunity, I can go out and play as well as I can play."

Which brings us to Garcia. Holcomb won the starting nod over Tim Couch in a frenzied quarterback battle during training camp last year. Then Holcomb struggled some as the team struggled.

He was yanked in favor of Couch after throwing two interceptions in the span of 25 seconds during the first half of a December loss to the Rams.

With the Browns unwilling to redo Couch's contract in recent weeks, and Couch unwilling to take the massive pay cut the team asked him to, Coach Butch Davis signed Garcia.

Holcomb, who has just started to lift some light weights to get the strength in his shoulder back, knows what that means for him.

"I'm not stupid. I know if I got hurt and something happened and they weren't going to sign Tim back, they would obviously have to do something and get somebody," Holcomb said.

"As far as competing (with Garcia) it's going to be hard for me. I'm going to miss all of our minicamps and everything, so I'll be behind the 8-ball. It's tough, kind of disheartening a little bit, but that's just the hand I was dealt right now."

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