It was the middle of the night when Howie Long realized his son’s career was ending. There, cooped up in a Los Angeles hotel room, Howie stayed by Kyle’s side as the Bears lineman recovered from simultaneous surgeries to repair his elbow and fix a torn labrum in his shoulder. Everything in the hospital went smoothly. Back at the hotel, less so.
“I remember just following him around the hotel room that night, throwing up probably 30-35 times,” Howie said. “It was a brutal night. To watch your kid go through that is a challenge.”
The Longs are no strangers to the surgical table; if they’re not the most decorated family in NFL history, they’re definitely the most operated-on.