Football in the storied Big Ten Conference means big-time pressure, high expectations from alumni and fans, and intense media exposure. So when the college football season hits, Dr. Greg Rowdon, head team physician for the Purdue University Boilermakers, braces himself for a whirlwind of activity and time away from his wife and two daughters.
“It's like being an accountant during tax season,” he said of the time commitment. “We play 13 games in a row this season. I'm gone [from home] for 13 weeks on Saturdays, either here on campus or away.” He's also on the sidelines for all football practices.
Dr. Rowdon has a split appointment at Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind. Half of the time, he treats musculoskeletal injuries at the University's student health center. The other half is spent treating football players and other athletes.
“The best thing about being a sports medicine doctor is that you are working with young, healthy, motivated people [who] want to get better,” said Dr. Rowdon, who received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering/biomedical engineering from Purdue. “You don't have to counsel your patient on weight loss or stopping smoking.”
Sometimes he has to “hold athletes back because they want to get back on the playing field” as soon as possible after an injury. “They're very anxious to do that; they'll do almost anything you recommend to them as far as helping them get back on the playing field.”
Building relationships with staff and players is another benefit of the job, he said. “There are some athletes that you hit it off with and you become a friend, and you keep that relationship going.”
Before joining the Purdue staff in June of 2005, Dr. Rowdon was the team physician for the now-defunct Indiana Firebirds professional arena football team in Indianapolis, as well as for a couple of area high schools. He has also held medical staff posts with the National Institute for Fitness and Sports, the Nike All-America Basketball Camp, the RCA Professional Tennis Tournament, and the National Football League, where he helped conduct physicals for the draft.
His first experience covering team sports came during a rotation with a sports medicine group in Indianapolis while he was an internal medicine resident at Indiana University Medical Center. “I asked if I could get involved with some team coverage,” he recalled. “I would switch my call schedule off of Friday night and pick up Saturday or Sunday so I could cover the high school football team on Friday night.”
All of this experience has spoiled him, he said, like when he attends a non-Purdue athletic event as a spectator in the stands instead of from the sidelines. “I can't sit in the stands anymore like a regular fan and watch a game because I'm not close enough,” he explained. “For me, it's very hard to go watch a game where you're not involved in the actual game itself.”
He makes up for lost family time during the summer when school's out of session. “The athletes may be on campus working out or going to summer school, but there's not a lot [of organized activities] going on, so summers are very nice,” he said.
During football season, his wife, who is also a Purdue alumnus, joins other spouses of team staff for tailgate parties before home games. “They become a nucleus,” Dr. Rowdon said. “She comes to all of the games and is in the stands.”
His two children attend almost every home game as well. His older daughter is a freshman at Purdue.
“Every day it goes through my mind how lucky I am to be doing what I'm doing with my alma mater and taking care of kids who are fun to be around and fun to take care of,” he said.
From 'Skins Fan to Team Doctor
Football season consumes much of Dr. Anthony M. Casolaro's time as well. As chief medical officer of the NFL's Washington Redskins for the past nine seasons, he's been on the sidelines amid the buzz of Monday Night Football games and during match-ups with such rivals as the Dallas Cowboys.
“A reward is feeling part of a team,” said Dr. Casolaro, a pulmonologist with Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington. “Having grown up in Washington, that's made it a lot of fun. One of the caveats is that you can't be a fan while you're the doctor. You really have to be able to separate that part of it.”
He logs the most hours during the team's training camp in northern Virginia. There, “we end up treating people for heat cramps or heat exhaustion. These are world-class athletes, but that doesn't prevent many of them from having medical problems,” he said. “We have four or five young men with asthma. We have had young men with insulin dependent diabetes, [and] young men with high blood pressure. You take care of the coaches and the staff also.”