BassFans probably noticed Brent "Brody" Broderick's name within the 2011 Elite Series field. Brody fished the Elite Series in 2009 as a rookie, but never fished last year. What happened?
According to Broderick, he sat out 2010 with an injury, and now he's back in the Elite Series under a medical exemption. It's yet one more example of the injury epidemic that plagues the sport, especially at the pro and semi-pro level.
Brody told BassFan the injury actually occurred just prior to his rookie 2009 Elite Series season. The tour that year kicked off at Amistad and he fun-fished at Twin Butte for a few days prior. "I set up on what was probably a good 10-pounder and for some reason – I must have done something quirky with the rod or reel – she went one way and the rod came out of my hand," he said. "She stripped the gears in the reel and the whole time I'm telling to my buddy, 'She's breaking my stuff!' My hand swelled up that night. I iced it, then went on fishing and never looked back. My hand hurt the whole season."
Later that year, around Christmas, he pushed a box together and his hand popped. At first he felt a little relieved – he thought maybe there'd been a dislocation in his hand the whole year. But then things got bad. When he woke up the next morning his hand has swelled up to the size of a football, and his palm was "black to the core," he said. That's when he went to see a sports-injury specialist in Cincinnati.
The diagnosis? "What I'd done was, when I set up on that fish, I tore the collateral ligament," Brody said. "Me not treating it caused my strap muscle to overwork and it finally gave way and detached from the bone plate. So I wound up with two massive injuries – a grade-3 sprain, which was a ruptured collateral ligament, and a grade-3 strain, which was the muscle tear. I was in a cast and a sling and two different rehab programs for 7 almost months. They gave me the option of surgery and new ligaments, but when they give you a 50-50 chance that it might fail and your hand is never going to be better than it is right now, that scared me. I decided to go with the full-fledged rehab and it was 7 or 8 months before I could even pick up a gallon of milk."
Right now, he estimates his hand to be at about 70%. He hasn't set up on any big fish like the one that caused the injury, but fished in and around Ohio as much as he could. His rehab's over, and "mentally and physically, I think I'm more prepared going into this season than I was 2 years ago," he said. "I've probably shed 15 pounds since then because I know what it takes to do the tour. It's a do-or-die year for me. Even though I didn't fish last year, I still consider myself a third-year pro and it's a do-or-die year for a lot of guys, because (B.A.S.S.) is going to cut the field, which I think is a good thing. Come next year, the boot will be there, but I'm not going to be one of those guys – I'm going to qualify again."
> BassFans can check our Brody's Angler Profile here.
