USC star happy to be alive

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Dec. 24, 2001 | 9:46 a.m.

It was early Sunday morning when Antuan Simmons, some USC teammates and a handful of Utah players showed up at Sunrise Children's Hospital to spread a little Christmas cheer.

It would have been understandable had Simmons been doing something else -- such as sleeping. After all, the Trojans' final evening out on the town before Tuesday's Las Vegas Bowl was Saturday night, when head coach Pete Carroll imposed a 1 a.m. curfew.

But the 5-foot-10, 195-pound senior cornerback from Valley High School in Sacramento, Calif., had no complaints.

"I like visiting hospitals," Simmons said, "because I know how it was for me when I was in the hospital."

Simmons became something of an authority on hospitals last year when he battled an illness that not only threatened his football career but also his life.

During a follow-up checkup after undergoing back surgery for a herniated disk, doctors discovered a benign abdominal tumor. Simmons underwent two more surgeries, which forced him to spend six weeks in the hospital. Three times he almost died. He lost 40 pounds during that span.

"I was in the hospital for 45 days, 40 of them in intensive care," Simmons said. "It was real rough."

Especially because Simmons was rated as a potential first-round NFL draft pick getting ready for his senior season. Instead, he redshirted as he tried to just get his life back to normal.

"There were times in the hospital when I didn't even know what was going on, when I was too weak to even turn around in bed," he said. "The first surgery took a lot of hours, but I was OK afterward. But after the second surgery, I was wiped out. I kept asking for medicine to put me to sleep, because I didn't want to be awake."

Simmons got even more depressed when he realized how much his ordeal had done to his once-strong body.

"The first time I saw the incision on my stomach ... with all those staples in it ... that was tough," he said. "I was like, 'Look at me.' My chest was sunk in. My jaw was sunk in. I had a big scar on my stomach. But the toughest times were in the mornings, when I'd be alone, just lying there. And that's all I had to do, just lay there. And wonder."

This story has a happy ending. Simmons not only recovered from his bout with death, he was back in time for spring football this year. He started 11 games and made what ESPN rated the most memorable play in college football this season, a between-the-legs interception on a deflection off UCLA wide receiver Brian Poli-Dixon that he returned 36 yards for a touchdown. That play set the tone for the Trojans' 27-0 shocker over the Bruins and earned USC a trip to Las Vegas.

Simmons, who started his USC career in 1997 as a first team freshman All-American for John Robinson, also has been invited to play in the Hula Bowl.

"I never doubted that I could come back because that's what the doctors told me I could do," Simmons said. "In a way it was a blessing that I injured my back. If I hadn't had the surgery, they probably wouldn't have found the tumor. When they did, it probably would have been too late or nearly too late. I probably would have had cancer and had to undergo an entirely different treatment."

The roughest part, Simmons said, was those long days in the hospital. That was why he was more than happy to pass out some USC baseball hats and Las Vegas Bowl memorabilia to the kids at Sunrise Hospital on Sunday. And even show them that long scar on his stomach.

"Some of those days when people visit you help get you through those hard days (in the hospital)," Simmons said. "Whenever I can come down and help someone do something like this, I'll come, because I know exactly how it was when I was in here. You really wouldn't understand until you lay in that bed. It means a lot."