Crosby had Tommy John surgery on his right elbow on June 25 of this year.
Roscoe Leaving, But Will Return. Maybe. |
by Dan Scott
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Correspondent
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Thu Oct 10 20:38:05 GMT-04:00 2002
CLEMSON - Roscoe Crosby is withdrawing from Clemson. But he'll be back in January. Maybe. Sounding very much like a confused young man with much on his mind, Crosby - the widely-heralded wide receiver from Union High School who is on a medical redshirt season at Clemson - announced Thursday that he is withdrawing from classes immediately and reporting to Phoenix, Az. next week to step up rehab work on his elbow. Crosby's rehabilitation will be overseen by the Kansas City Royals, who took the two-sport star in the second round of the 2001 June Draft and paid him a signing bonus of $1.75 million. The Royals will be overseeing his rehabilitation. "I'm going to go out to Arizona and basically finish rehabbing my arm," Crosby said following Clemson's Thursday practice. "I talked with (head coach Tommy) Bowden and everybody and told them why I wanted to withdraw from classes right now. I really want to get out there this season and get healthy. "Not that the Clemson trainers couldn't do it. But there's a lot of (baseball) players out there rehabbing right now, and I want to get out there and run and be around them." Crosby had Tommy John surgery on his right elbow on June 25 of this year, which kept him from playing minor league baseball during the summer and forced his medical redshirt at Clemson for 2002. The surgery was the culmination of a tumultuous spring for Crosby, who also saw three friends killed and two others injured in an automobile accident while en route to Florida to watch him play baseball. There also were reports that he may have been the target of a drive-by shooting incident sometime afterwards while back in Union. And all of this came on top of a freshman season which saw Crosby miss time with both a knee injury and a broken nose, the latter of which came during the on-field celebration after a dramatic overtime win at Georgia Tech. Add it all together, and you have a young man seemingly walking around with the weight of the world on his shoulders. "Right now I kind of want to get away," Crosby said. "It's not really about the baseball-football thing, because I'm still going to do both. I'll be back in Jan. to finish getting my hours in class so I'll be eligible next year." Crosby admitted that he wrestled with the dilemma for some time, and that continuing to play both sports was something of a last-minute decision. But with a deadline of today looming for any student to withdraw from class without getting a grade, he and wide receivers coach Rick Stockstill found an NCAA rule which allows for a one-time withdrawal from classes for medical reasons. Crosby will use that exemption now in hopes of getting his arm back in shape in time to play for the Royals next spring. It also gives him a chance to get his head together, which he admits is important, especially with the still-lingering effects of the accident which claimed the life of his friends. "I went through the ordeal with my best friends, and the spotlight...I just wanted everything to die down and it wouldn't go away," Crosby said. "Right now I feel like I can go to Arizona and relax." "There's been a lot on the kid that a lot of people don't understand," Stockstill said. "I've got a lot of sympathy for him. I understand everything he's going through and a lot of the adversity he's had to overcome." Whether or not the relaxation he seeks eases Crosby's mind remains to be seen. But it was obvious Thursday that he's still struggling with the pressures of being a two-sport star. Asked whether there was a scenario that could develop in Arizona which would change his mind about returning to Clemson, Crosby was noncommittal. "Right now I really can't say," he said. "What always made me happy was baseball and football. The Royals understand that and Clemson understands that. But right now I really can't say."
| 2001 Crosby Game by Game |
Date Opponent Plays Rec Yds Avg TD LG
9-1 Central Florida *44 3 64 21.3 0 33
9-8 Wofford *9 1 9 9.0 0 9
9-22 Virgina DNP
9-29 at Georgia Tech 13 0 0 0.0 0 -
10-13 at N.C. State DNP
10-20 North Carolina 35 0 0 0.0 0 -
10-27 at Wake 32 3 36 12.0 0 26
11-3 Florida State 50 2 45 22.5 0 28
11-10 at Maryland 44 4 61 15.3 1 32
11-17 at S. Carolina 31 4 42 10.5 0 22
12-1 Duke *27 6 139 23.1 2 58
12-31 at La. Tech *55 4 69 17.3 1 53
Total 340 27 465 17.2 4 58 |
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