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EDUCATION NFL Jock Turns Doc (To Be) What do the Washington Redskins offensive line and Harvard Medical School have in common? Mark Adickes, a proud member of the HMS Class of 2000. Adickes came to HMS with a Super Bowl ring and a growing family. And in spite of his atypical background, he is fitting in nicely and having the time of his life.     Adickes was urged to participate in athletics by his father, an army chaplain and ex-college basketball player. He chose to play football in high school because he was "so much bigger than everybody else." Adickes did not have aspirations to play in the NFL until he was recruited by Baylor and played well against a first-round draft pick during one of his college games. In part because he was never passionate about his business major, in his last two years he focused on preparing to play football professionally. By the time he was a senior, Adickes was an all-American.     Upon graduating, he was drafted into the USFL—a now-defunct league—and played with the L.A. Express, whose quarterback was Steve Young (currently of the 49ers). In his first year playing professionally, he injured his knee for the second time (he had torn knee ligaments as a sophomore at Baylor). This time the injury "completely destroyed" his anterior cruciate and tore his posterior cruciate. By the end of the second year, however, he had recovered sufficiently to be drafted in the first round by the Kansas City Chiefs.     Years before, as a fledgling football player in fourth grade, he had attended the first game ever played at Arrow Head Stadium, home of the Chiefs. Upon "entering the stadium again as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs, the stadium seemed so much smaller," Adickes says.     He left the Chiefs and went to the Redskins when he was told by coach Marty Schottenheimer that at 290 pounds he was too small. He played three seasons with Washington and coach Joe Gibbs. In his second year, the team went to the Super Bowl and won it, an experience Adickes calls surreal. "The buildup was incredible, and, of course, the adrenaline was flowing. But I had been playing for 21 years. During that time, I had played in games that were more personally meaningful." Still, he admits, it was a thrill to be a part of that team where "the chemistry was extraordinary."     The last year he played he was 32 years old and, by that time, he had "one foot out the door." He had become interested in sports medicine through his personal experience with knee injuries. Rather than mourning the end of his football career, he was eager to move on, calling the shift a "perfect transition." Initially, Adickes thought he would simply get training in physical rehabilitation. Without his wife's encouragement, he would never have decided to go to medical school and would not have applied to Harvard. But she convinced him to shoot for the stars, so fresh from the NFL, he enrolled at George Mason University in northern Virginia and took two years of science courses to prepare for medical training.     With respect to where he is now, Adickes says, "I look at my athletic career as a gift because there was a lot of luck involved. I worked to get where I got as a football player, but at the same time, I take more pride in the work I did to get into medical school. Walking into the atrium in the MEC for the first time was the most thrilling experience of my life—more thrilling even than walking into the stadium to play in the Super Bowl." —Molly Walker Back to Top