Last season’s defensive lineman of the year Mark Philipp battles back from dislocated patella without complaint Spt_philipp_zc_9-18
September 22, 2003
Pull-quote:”They told me it was my patella. I was like, ‘Well, what is a patella?” – Mark Phillip
One wouldn’t suspect it when SIU defensive tackle Mark Philipp rocked Murray State quarterback Stewart Childress last Saturday.
“All I wanna do is kill quarterbacks,” Philipp exclaimed.
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One wouldn’t suspect it when Philipp is with friends on the football team with a smile firmly implanted on his face at all times.
That is the only expression he knows.
“That is just Mark,” said Justin Kramer, Philipp’s roommate. “He is very easy-going and very outgoing. He is going to lighten the mood. He is just Mark. That is who he is.”
But it still happened. One just wouldn’t ever know it.
The images are still fresh in Philipp’s mind when his patella in his right knee popped out of socket.
Philipp, an all-effort type, was taking part in an exercise called the Tennessee Drill during spring practice in early April. He beat the offensive lineman lined up in front of him off the ball and hit sophomore running back Antoine Jackson. Philipp then tried to use his stout 6-foot, 295-pound body to lift Jackson off the ground for an emphatic tackle.
Jackson kept his feet moving, as all running backs are taught to do, and then it happened.
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“I heard it pop,” Philipp said. “It was like snap, crackle, pop. When I couldn’t get back up, my future kind of flashed in front of my eyes. They told me it was my patella. I was like, ‘Well, what is a patella?”
Phillip immediately underwent surgery, and now a four-inch scar directly over his kneecap reminds him of the dislocation.
To Philipp, the injury was just a minor setback, even though the surgery was major. In fact, he didn’t even feel any pain when the patella shot out of socket.
“Mark was never down after his surgery,” Kramer said. “He was a bit discouraged because he wanted to be out there. He was just like, ‘Well, I got to get it better.’ That is all he would say.”
Philipp is different from the average football player.
His childhood was spent in a different part of the world surrounded by people who comprised a society almost polar opposite of America.
He spent 10 years of his life in a place where the most extreme violence is a fistfight and the cops do not carry weapons.
The people in his native Samoa are considered among the toughest in the world. A dislocated patella to a Samoan is like a sprain to the rest of the world.
“People say Samoans are some of the nicest people in the world,” Philipp said with his signature baritone laugh. “But they say that we are also the wrong people to mess with. I think we are nice people and sexy, too.”
His time in Samoa just expanded his pride in his culture. It is evident from his lava-lava – a traditional Samoan skirt worn by men – to the way his smile grows when somebody asks him about the culture.
“Mark is very proud of where he came from,” Kramer said after recalling a story where Philipp wore his lava-lava at their cookout Tuesday night. “It is obvious in his style of clothing he wears. He is always sporting the island wear.”
When he came back to America, he lived at home with his parents Marsick and Me and his five siblings in San Bernardino, Calif.
The family is different from the average American family, too.
Aside from being Samoan, the family boasts an amazing football roster.
Philipp’s younger brother Paul currently plays defensive line at the University of Arizona, and his cousin Troy Polamalu was the Pittsburgh Steelers first-round draft choice last season.
“When I go home in summertime, everybody always works out,” Philipp said. “We are a football family.”
Paul and Mark are like any two brothers fighting for family supremacy. But not every family has two massive 300-pound people battling for the spot.
“We fought one time because he hit me in my head,” Philipp said. “But it’s not hard to break up a fight when it comes to Samoan parents.”
Paul was the person who pushed Mark in his workouts during the summer so that he could get back better than he was despite the knee injury.
“My brother was my motivation,” Philipp said. “My brother’s thing has always been, ‘Why be good when you can be great? Why be great when you can be the best?'”
Philipp was the best. At least compared to the Saluki defensive lineman he used to be. At the end of last season, he was honored by being chosen as the defensive lineman of the year after racking up 35 tackles.
“It was a real honor,” Philipp said. “When I came here, I wanted to be the best defensive lineman. It was humbling.”
Teams couldn’t block him one-on-one. Philipp was too strong, too smart and too tough for just one player to match.
“I was always raised on the idea that Samoans are warriors,” Philipp said. “We are the best of the best. Every time I line up on somebody, I think, ‘He can’t block me because he isn’t Samoan.'”
Sure enough, all the hard work in the offseason paid off.
There Philipp was, dressed in full uniform wearing his number 97 jersey against Quincy. It was the opening game of the season, just four months removed from the freakish injury.
Then in the fourth quarter, Philipp entered the game quietly. He kind of snuck up on even the learned Saluki fan. No one really expected him to play. And no one surely would have expected him to chase down Hawks’ quarterback Matt Wehrle for a sack.
Since the Quincy game, Philipp’s playing time has increased. He is starting to work himself back in the normal defensive line rotation.
“We are very proud of Mark with how he has come off surgery,” SIU head coach Jerry Kill said. “He is getting better each week. He is a team player. He has battled back where some would have not even played.”
He expects to be back to last season’s norm as far as playing time by Oct. 18 when the Salukis have to travel to Macomb to play No. 2 Western Illinois. His addition will only improve No. 16 SIU’s talented defense.
“We are going to kill them,” Philipp said. “When I get back to full speed, [the defensive line] will be unstoppable.”
When he says that, don’t bet against him. Philipp has yet to encounter something that his spirit couldn’t kill.
After returning from a major knee injury, players suspect this big Samoan can overcome just about anything.
“Nothing he does will ever surprise me,” Kramer said.
Reporter Zack Creglow can be reached at [email protected]
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