Gale Sayers felt Willis McGahee's pain.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Clark Spencer

MIAMI _ Gale Sayers awoke from knee surgery in 1968 with his right leg in a cast. When the cast was removed 10 weeks later, the star running back for the Chicago Bears stared at the shrunken limb as if it couldn't possibly be his own.

``I cried for two weeks,'' he recalled. ``My leg _ when it came out _ was so small.''

Sayers was never the same. Though he rushed for more than 1,000 yards to lead the NFL the following season, one Chicago newspaper remarked of the great ball carrier that ``Gone are that instant acceleration from medium to top speed and the incomparable ability to change direction on a dime without hesitation or loss of speed.''

A year later, after 4 { seasons in an NFL uniform, Sayers retired after sustaining yet another knee injury, this time to his left knee. Sayers knows his career-ending fate isn't necessarily what awaits the University of Miami's Willis McGahee, thanks to new technology and surgical procedures.

McGahee has already started his rehabilitation after suffering major damage to his left knee in the fourth quarter of the Jan. 3 Fiesta Bowl.

``It couldn't have turned out any better for me because the ...