Derrius Bell walks through the halls of the Loyd All-Sports Center with his teammates en route to position meetings and film-watching sessions. His right arm is virtually immobilized by a sling, and held off the side of his body by a protective cussion, the result of surgery last week to repair a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder.

All things considered, the procedure was a pretty minor inconvenience.

Despite a pair of concussions and offseason shoulder surgery, Derrius Bell says that as long as he receives medical clearance, he plans to play for SMU again in 2010 (photo by Webmaster).

During the 2009 season, Bell spent more time in the trainers’ room — and in hospitals — than he did on the field. He missed the season opener against Stephen F. Austin after he came down with swine flu. The following week, at UAB, Bell got sent on a cornerback blitz, but before he reached UAB quarterback Joe Webb, Blazer running back Justin Brooks — who had a 45-pound advantage on Bell — stepped up and blasted Bell, knocking him unconscious and sending him to a Birmingham hospital with a concussion.

He sat out the following week’s trip to Washington State, and the bye week after that. When he finally returned to the field Oct. 3 at TCU, he chased Ryan Christian as the Horned Frog running back flared out for a pass in the flank. Both players and the ball arrived simultaneously, and Bell slammed into Christian. Neither player got up. Each was unconscious, and after a delay for treatment from each team’s medical staff, each was done for the night.

Bell was done for the season.

Players suffer injuries all the time, sometimes season-ending injuries. But head injuries are different than a torn ligament or a broken bone. The long-term effects of concussions and other head injuries still are being studied.

It was possible Bell’s football career was over.

Bell’s coaches, teammates and family were understandably concerned about his well-being, and whether his future should include a return to the field. Bell said that if he is cleared to play, that’s exactly what he plans to do. He is scheduled to meet later this month with a neurologist.

“We’re going to talk about the pros and cons,” Bell said, “but if he gives me the green light, then it’s up to what my shoulder can do.”

His shoulder is supposed to keep him out of football for about three months. Bell discussed his future with his family, and got a somewhat unexpected answer from his mother.

“My mom’s a tough woman,” he said. “She just told me to be smart about it. Obviously, we need to understand what could happen, long-term, if I get another concussion. Football’s a violent game, and with my size, that’s a possibility.

“But she said if I’m feeling good, and not lying about how I feel, she has no problem with me coming back. They just want me to be smart about it.”

Bell said that after getting his season-ending concussion in Fort Worth, watching the rest of the season was difficult.

“It was so hard,” he said. “I was happy for the team, of course. We won and we got to a bowl game, and I like to think I had a part in that.

“But my whole purpose coming to SMU was just like what Coach Jones says: to change the culture here. I’m from Dallas. This is a great school, and I want to help make it known that SMU is a great place to play football, too. We’re on the right track to getting there, and I feel like I contributed to that, but watching from the sidelines is tough. You want to be out there on the field on every play.”

A DIFFERENT APPROACH

Not everyone tackles the same way. Defensive end Taylor Thompson, for example, builds up a head of steam, spreads out his tree trunk arms into a pterodactyl-like wingspan and swallows ball-carriers whole. But Thompson also is listed at 6-foot-6 and 280 pounds. Bell is listed at 5-10 and 170, so the laws of physics don’t allow him to engulf ball carriers the way Thompson does. Instead, Bell fearlessly launches his body at opposing players

Bell said that because he played less than three quarters of football in 2009, he could use his redshirt year to earn an additional season of eligibility, if he so chooses (photo by Travis Johnston).

Secondary coach Derrick Odum said he has steered clear of telling Bell what he should do with his future, but said that if Bell does return, there will be additional conversations about tackling technique. How effective those conversations will be, Odum said, remains to be seen.

“I try to stay away from that,” Odum said. “I’m not going to judge for him, because he hadn’t had any previous concussions at all in his past … high school, college — never. He got dinged, and then he got dinged again. So I don’t know — it’s completely a doctor thing, a family thing. It’s not for me to say.

“If he’s there, I’m going to use him. We’re going to talk about how ‘you can’t throw it in there like you did before,’ but it’s going to be hard to rein it in, because that’s all he knows. He’s a tough, aggressive, fearless player, and that’s part of what makes him a very good player. So how much we can change his style after he’s played that way all his life, I don’t know.”

“He (Odum) said that if I play again, he wants the same kind of player,” Bell said. “He doesn’t want me thinking too much — if I do that, I could start making the wrong plays. He wants me to play the same way, where I just react, which is good, because I don’t know any other way to play. I’m not ever going to be timid, and I’m not going to back down.

“But more than that, he wants me to be healthy. If it’s not safe to play, I won’t play.”

Bell said that after his second concussion, in Fort Worth, head coach June Jones acknowledged that it might be time for the sophomore cornerback to call it a career.

“Coach Jones said ‘this might be it for you,’” Bell said. “I think he might have been scared. I think a lot of people might have been scared.”

WAITING GAME

“March 23, when I go see the neurologist — that’s going to be a big day for me,” Bell said. “Maybe he’s going to tell me I can play. But sometimes they have to give bad news, too. They say concussions can be related to Alzheimer’s (Disease), or paralysis. If they say that’s what playing again will do to me …

Secondary coach Derrick Odum said that if Bell comes back, he should try to 'rein in' the reckless abandon with which he sometimes makes tackles (photo by Travis Johnston).

“I just can’t see myself playing another season. Or I could play two, since I could count (2009) as my redshirt year. I played two quarters, 11 minutes and one play — that’s low enough that I can get the year back.”

Odum is in a tough spot. On one hand, he coaches the secondary, and Bell is a talented, experienced cornerback whose value only increases with the graduation of Bryan McCann. On the other hand, Odum cares about Bell as a person and can not put one of his players in a situation that brings with it an abnormal risk of injury. Because of that, Odum said he has resisted the urge to advise Bell to walk away from the game, finish his education and get his degree.

“I can’t do that to him, because his passion to play is so great,” Odum said. “How am I going to tell him that? I’m not pushing either way. I tell him, ‘if this is something you don’t want to do, I completely understand, but if this is something you do want to do, I’m with you.’

“I don’t want to influence him one way or the other. I want his doctors, his family and him to decide. If he’s here, great. If he decides he doesn’t want to risk it, that’s OK, too.”

Bell said he doesn’t anticipate a drawn-out decision. If he is cleared medically to resume playing, he plans to do exactly that.

“I never got injured in high school, so this is all kind of new to me,” Bell said. “But I want to play. Hopefully, I’ll make better decisions when I’m going in for the kill. But I want to play. I plan on playing.”