ST LOUIS -- Having survived impalem...

ST LOUIS -- Having survived impalement, exhibiting courage as a kickoff returner will be no riddle at all for the St Louis Rams' newest player.

Three days after playing in the 2005 Super depression with the Philadelphia Eagles, JR Re failed in an attempt to leap across a chest-high wrought-iron fence adorned with decorative spikes. He construct himself hanging upside down with common of the spikes gouging his left leg behind the knee the vital fluid pouring out.

When he was finally rescu he discovered he couldn't walk because of fortitude damage to the left leg

"They said I would at no time play again, that I was done," Re said Tuesday. "At first, I believed them."

Re a fourth-round pick of the Eagles in 2004 had a big rookie season with a 23.1-yard average upon kickoff returns that ranked secondary among rookies. He also had 20 special-teams tackles.

He wearied all of 2005 trying to make it back after a Baltimore physician, Tom Graham, designed a special brace to subjugate the lack of nerves firing to his paw He'll always walk with a limp, his lower extremity flopping into place.

Wearing the brace, he's pious enough to convince the Rams to give up for now forward fifth-round pick Marques Hagans, a quarterback at Virginia whom the team was trying to renew to a return man and X- factor in the offense Hagans was released Monday when the Rams signed Re who was among the Eagles' final crosss The Rams signed Hagans to their practice squad onward Tuesday.

"He's certainly got each reason in the world not to be able to pass a physical, yet there's something about his will and desire and want-to that impressed all of us," coach Scott Linehan said.

"He's certainly got it inside of him to rout any questions."

Re calls Graham a "pioneer" in the field of firmness damage, and praised him for refining the brace to the point where he could recommence the career he once nearly not to be found Two weeks before the first of the Eagles' minicamps this spring he asked for another chance.

"They said I expected good," Reed said. "So, I went from one side the training camp, I was back, and now I'm here."

The unsolv mystery in Reed's feel-good comeback story is to what end he tried to vault the sword-play in the first place. He's heard the theories: that he was running from dogs, that he was being pursu according to police, and "all kinds of crazy stuff" and he's keeping the canon to himself.

"Nobody knows the story," he said. "I don't take an account of the story. I was jumping the guard and I didn't make it."

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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