North Mississippi Doctor Serves As An Orthopedic Specialist For NFL Combine

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- College football players entering the NFL Draft know their on- field performance is important, but so is their off the field performance.

Doctors across the U.S. evaluate the health of the athletes.

Doctor Rusty Linton recently made a trip to the combine as an orthopedic specialist, giving physicals.

At the combine, Linton said scouts want to know about how the player recovers from injury and what type of injuries they’ve had in their career.

“Well when I first got started, I was doing my training with the team doctor for the Miami Dolphins and the Florida Gators and so I went to help, there’s so many physicals that we have to do and they needed as much help as they could get,” said Linton.

In his 25 years, Linton has worked with the Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers, and now the Chicago Bears.

“The combine is where we’re doing physicals on the guys who are getting ready to be drafted,” said Linton.  “Everybody knows how good they can play, everyone has seen film on them on Saturday’s and whatever, but we’re seeing their medical problems to see if there’s any reason that might keep them from getting drafted or getting a long term contract.”

Linton does a head to toe examination.

“We’ll go through a neck exam, we’ll find out if they had concussions, we’ll look at their shoulder, we’ll look at elbows, we’ll look at wrists, every finger, backs, hips, knees, thighs, hamstrings, calf muscles, ankles, toes,” said Linton.

Once the exam is done, if Linton notices anything wrong, he notifies the teams looking to draft the player.

“We may fail somebody on their physical,” said Linton.  “Now that doesn’t mean the guy goes home, that mean’s that the team tells their GM he failed his exam. We don’t think we should draft him because we’re going to have a real hard time getting him on the field.”

The results Linton finds in the physicals, plays a key factor in a player’s draft stock.

“Some guys, for example, will have arthritis in their knee, but they got film on them from playing in college and they did pretty good, but yet you find out at the combine that it’s still a little swollen,” said Linton.  “Now, we’re asking him to play more games, so the GM may really like him and say, we’re still going to draft him but we’re not going to give him a 3 year contract, because we’re afraid that arthritis might not make him lasts very long in the NFL.”

Linton said going to the combine is also a good way to make connections, helping him bring experience back to his Columbus office.

“I talk to guys who take care of pro teams, so it makes me a better doctor taking care of the local college and high school kids,” said Linton.

Linton has been an orthopedic surgeon, and MSU’s team doctor for 26 years now.

Throughout his career Linton says he has been offered three NFL jobs, but he turned them all down because of his love for Columbus and Mississippi State.