May 7, 2008
by Tom Borrelli, Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
Nobody enjoys having his year end with a tough loss in the playoffs.
But it's easy to understand why Philadelphia Wings forward A.J. Shannon takes a smile into this offseason.
"It's great to know I have some lacrosse left in me," said the 27-year-old, who would be a lock for the National Lacrosse League's Comeback Player of the Year Award - if such an award existed. "To come back like that makes me pretty happy. I think it's a good start. I've come so far and had a pretty great year."
When Shannon entered the NLL with the Buffalo Bandits as the sixth overall pick in the 2003 draft, he was one of the fastest men on two feet. He could outrace or overpower a defender.
Named to the All-Rookie Team after netting nine goals with 15 assists during Buffalo's march to the Champion's Cup final in 2004, it appeared as if the sky was the limit for the former University of Virginia All-American. Especially after he improved radically to 25 goals in '05.
But less than a year later, Shannon's life, at least as it pertained to professional indoor lacrosse, changed. On March 24, 2006, he crumpled to the Xcel Energy Center turf in a game against the Minnesota Swarm - his last as a member of the Bandits.
The prognosis: "I blew out my medial collateral ligament, stretched the anterior cruciate ligament and did some meniscus [cartilage] damage."
His season was over after just nine games, and his future in doubt.
"I tore up my knee my first year, and I know what that's like," said Shannon's former teammate, Bandits captain Rich Kilgour. "It's six months of doing nothing, then doing exercises that you could do in your sleep before. I know how hard it is."
Shannon, who had never before suffered a serious lacrosse injury, went right to work rehabilitating his left knee.
Barely four months later, he was back on the field with the Rochester Rattlers of Major League Lacrosse, ready to put the ordeal behind him.
And boom ...
"I had only played four or five games with the Rattlers and was just starting to find my feet again," said the 6-foot, 213-pounder from Whitby, Ontario. "Then I hurt the right knee - tore the MCL, the ACL and meniscus playing for the Rattlers. I really did a good job on that one."
Did the original injury contribute to his second major setback?
"You use your other knee a little more, you cut harder on that knee, and my muscles just kind of went out on me, and the knee just buckled quickly," Shannon explained. "It was probably the worst year of my life, because it was just two weeks before the [ILF] World Championships in field lacrosse. So I ended up, by default, being left off [eventual champion] Team Canada. It was like rubbing salt in the wound. It was a very tough year to get through."
No one will ever know for sure if Shannon came back from the first injury too soon. Admittedly, he was anxious to get in shape for the world games and tired of that helpless feeling an athlete faces during rehab.
"A month later, when you're still not even walking, you think, 'Is this ever going to be good again?'" said Kilgour. "Then two months later, you get on a bike and you can't even go all the way around, and it's just frustrating. You're an athlete your whole life and able to do pretty much anything you want with your body. Having something like that happen raises a lot of questions, and you have four or five months to think about it, too. It's rough. Full kudos to A.J. for coming back from that not once, but twice."
This time, Shannon's rehab was much longer and tougher. He was traded from the Bandits to the Edmonton Rush following the 2006 season, but when the '07 NLL campaign rolled around, he wasn't nearly ready to return.
He salvaged a five-game season with the Rush and finished with five goals and 11 points despite not being 100 percent.
"My sense is he probably came back a little too quickly," said Wings coach Dave Huntley. "And sometimes that makes the [rehab] period even longer. I've known A.J. as a player forever, having watched him play at Virginia and through friends in Whitby. I had the pleasure of coaching the Canadian team in 2002, which he almost made as a very young man. He's always been a pleasure to coach."
Despite initially entertaining retirement thoughts, Shannon kept working hard to get both knees back in shape.
When he went to training camp at the start of this season with the Rush, he realized he was getting close to being his old self.
"I was really trying to find myself in those few games with Edmonton in 2007, and that was really tough," Shannon said. "I just wasn't myself out on the floor running around. Then that whole summer I couldn't really play for the Rattlers because the field game is more of a speed game, and my legs weren't really back yet.
"But slowly, I started to come around. I never thought it would take that long, over a full year, about 18 months. I think in Edmonton's training camp, I felt pretty normal again. But I still had some work to do mentally. That's the last stage that comes back when you're hurt."
Shannon had done so much work in rehab that he eventually convinced himself his legs were stronger than they had been even before the injuries.
He got off to a solid start with the Rush, tallying 11 goals and 22 points in seven games. But traveling back and forth from his job as a financial analyst in the Toronto credit market was taxing.
Plus, the Rush made a big change after starting this season 0-6. Bob Hamley was brought in to replace Paul Day, and Shannon says the writing was on the wall. Hamley made no bones about needing to replenish a depleted stock of draft picks in Edmonton, and veterans were his most valuable trading chip.
So in March, Shannon was dealt to the Wings. He went from a team that was 1-6 to a squad riding high at 6-1, en route to ending a skid of five consecutive non-playoff seasons.
"We needed some help on the left side, so to get a guy who's a quality guy and player, it was a no-brainer for us and really easy," said Huntley, whose Wings lost in Buffalo, 14-12, in an East Division semifinal last weekend and finished the season 10-7.
"We needed somebody who could score from the outside on the left side," Huntley said. "It was a pretty specific role. Up to that point, we had gotten one goal from the third guy on our left side. A.J. averaged a little over a goal a game, so he executed that role great. A lot of times it's hard when you bring in a guy halfway through the season on a team that's doing well, and there are some risks. But we knew that wouldn't be an issue with him."
Shannon admits he was nervous about being traded midseason to a team that had a good thing going. But he was reunited with former Bandits teammate Jason Crosbie and ex-Cavalier John Christmas, which made the transition easier.
"You don't want to create any waves, and you want to make a smooth transition without any hiccups," Shannon said. "These guys had been together since November in training camp, and now it's March. Coming in, you really don't know what to expect, don't want to do anything to mess with a good thing. But it turned out to be a really good fit."
Crosbie said Shannon is a different player now than when they were Buffalo teammates, but still effective.
"He's become a little more cerebral," Crosbie said. "In college when he was young, he just ran around. And though the knee injury has slowed him down, he analyzes a little more. He knows he can't go around guys with speed, so now how is he going to get open? He looks for the soft spots, uses the pick-and-roll game much better. His game has changed that way, but that also comes with maturity, too. I think it's made him a better player actually."
And even his teammates can see that he's a happy player.
"He sees it as a blessing that he can still play this game," Crosbie said. "We don't get the accolades, we don't get the money, but not everybody can play this game, so it makes you special. There are only 12 teams with 27 people, so it puts us among the best in the world. He really appreciates that, not that he didn't before. He's going to play as much as he can, try to get as much out of it as he can and work as hard as he can.
"We're glad to have him here."
The feeling is mutual.
"Hopefully next year, I won't have to wear the brace and be totally back to normal," said Shannon, who had 11 goals and 18 points in his nine games with the Wings. "Part of my game (speed) was gone playing with two knees like that. I was really wondering if I was ever going to be normal again or back to my old self. So it feels really good."
Tom Borrelli is a sports writer for The Buffalo News
and a regular contributor to Lacrosse Magazine
and Lacrosse Magazine Online
. In 2007, Borrelli became the first media member honored by the National Lacrosse League Hall of Fame. He has covered the NLL for 16 years.
For more on the NLL and from Borrelli, check back to LMO each Wednesday throughout the 2008 season, or contact Borrelli at tbwrite@aol.com.
