Former Super Bowler transitions from jock to doc

He went from jock to doc: Dr. Mark Adickes was known in Texas as a Baylor University football-playing  all-American. Now, he's an all-star at Baylor College of Medicine.

As the Chief of Sports Medicine at BCM, Dr. Adickes said he can relate to his patients because he's experienced some of the same injuries.

“Shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee, I mean most of this stuff I’ve had, so it makes it really easy to connect with people,” Dr. Adickes said.

Adickes has this unique perspective in the medical field because his first career was on one. In 1991, he played offensive lineman for the Washington Redskins when they won the Super Bowl.

His team has been called one of the best teams ever, and as two different teams gear up for the big game in Houston, he explains how unreal touching the gridiron really is during that specific event.

“When you talk about an athlete and particularly a little kid: he played little league football and he fantasized his entire life about playing at the next level. So then he makes his junior high team, then his high school team, then he gets to play in college, then he gets to play in the NFL, but the ultimate game is the Super Bowl,” Adickes said. “There are guys that play their entire careers, even if they're lucky enough to make the NFL, and they don't get to play in that game, and it is as special as any one would think.”

Now, Adickes carries history in the palm (or finger) of his hand.

“It reminds me of the city that I lived in, it actually has the score of the game, it has my name and my position and my number and the three Super Bowls that the Redskins won, so it really does tells the championship history of the team,” Adickes said, “Not just my history, so it's pretty cool.”

Adickes admits he doesn’t wear the ring often, but joked that it would never be appropriate at his job.

“You can't get gloves on over that, the rubber gloves will just rip!” he said.

He is able to stay involved in the game as a sports medicine expert for ESPN and DirecTV. He provides injury analysis for a variety of sports.