- June 9th, 2007, 12:33 am
#89845
Gado's absence not a bad one
By Adam Schefter
NFL Analyst
Adam Schefter's "Around the League" reports and commentaries can be seen regularly on NFL Total Access.
(June 7, 2007) -- Some players miss offseason conditioning drills because they want a new contract. Others are unhappy with the direction of their teams. But Houston running back Samkon Gado has the greatest excuse in National Football League history.
Gado missed four weeks of conditioning drills in Houston's training facility because he has been ... studying for his medical boards.
Samkon Gado is after more than just touchdowns this offseason.
There's a sentence that might never have been written before, ever.
Gado is scheduled to take the MCATs July 13 in Columbia, S.C., with the hopes of becoming an orthopedic surgeon after his football career.
"I wanted to take the MCATs in May," Gado said Thursday, "but when I saw the size of our playbook, I pushed it back to July."
Texans head coach Gary Kubiak has been as accommodating as he needs to be for Gado, who is one of the great men in the NFL. Essentially, in Gado he trusts. It also has helped that Gado has put himself through his own rigorous workouts in South Carolina, when he wasn't studying three hours a day for the MCATs.
"This is the best shape I've ever been in," Gado said. "I promise you, I wasn't sitting around South Carolina just studying and doing nothing. Now that I'm back here training, it's like I'm taking a break."
Upon returning to Houston, Gado also has been reunited with his former Packers teammate Ahman Green, one of the Texans' two high-priced, high-profile acquistions.
"As soon as he came in, I called him and said, 'Man, I'm trying to start a career here, leave me alone!'" Gado joked. "No, I love Ahman. I told him that it's a blessing to have him here. I don't say that because I'm supposed to. I say that because I mean it. Anything that he has done I want to do because I want to have the success in this league that he has."
Gado's success goes beyond the league. He is a student of the game, and of medicine, which he began learning about when he was a pre-med major at Liberty University. Gado will face plenty of tests in training camp. But no test will be bigger than the one he faces July 13.
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