LINCOLN There's more to the story, as is often the case.
Kenny Wilson suffered a broken leg while moving a television set. He was carrying the set up stairs. He leaned backward to adjust his grip. And the leg shifted.
The femur snapped under the weight of the set.
Wilson knew immediately he was in trouble. The pain was intense.
"I heard it and felt it," he said.
He managed to balance the set on his other leg and put it down.
"That's all I could do," he said.
A year later, he is still recovering. And a year later, he still gets comments such as: "Oh, he broke his leg moving a TV. How weak is he?"
Wilson takes the remarks in stride, with a smile even.
"I let 'em think what they think," he said.
Wilson recalled the experience following the Nebraska football team's second spring practice on Friday. The senior running back was in street clothes.
He was suited up for the first practice on Wednesday. "It felt great," he said. "I haven't been on the field since '06, at least not in cleats," he said.
"Oh man, I don't see how people sit out a year. It about killed me."
The broken leg occurred last March. But he hadn't played or practiced since late in his junior season. A leg infection kept him out of the 2007 Cotton Bowl game.
That season had begun with such promise for Wilson, who transferred to Nebraska from Butler County (Kan.) Community College. He was a part of an I-back committee that included Marlon Lucky, Cody Glenn and Brandon Jackson.
Through the first four games, Wilson had more carries (62) than any of the other three and more rushing yards (278) than all except Lucky. He had a team-high 19 carries in back-to-back games against Southern California and Troy.
His 19 carries against USC were more than everyone else combined.
After the Troy game, however, his playing time diminished dramatically. He carried only 13 times combined the rest of the season. He didn't get in against Missouri. And, as mentioned earlier, he missed the Auburn game because of the infection.
Wilson was going to miss spring practice a year ago anyway. "But we weren't prepared to lose him in the fall," then-coach Bill Callahan said in addressing the broken leg. "This is a tremendous setback for him personally."
Wilson underwent surgery and began the long recovery process. He walked with crutches for seven months and rode a scooter to class when it snowed. "If I would have taken one slip and fell, it would have been all over for me again," he said.
He was most upset about being upset. "I knew I'd be back. I wasn't worried," said Wilson, who had a redshirt. "I was going to work to be back."
He was always on the sideline last season, cheering on his teammates. And he has been on the field with them this spring, even when he hasn't practiced.
"He's coming along," coach Bo Pelini said at the start of spring practice. "Any time you have that kind of traumatic injury, you're going to have good days and bad. He went through everything in the winter. You just don't want to put him out there and have him get set back. He's been out there and really pushing himself to try and move on.
"But he's not 100 percent. That's kind of day by day."
Wilson, who placed the healing at about 80 percent, certainly expects to be full speed in the fall, if not in time for summer conditioning.
Now, for the rest of the story.
Prior to the television set incident, "I had two surgeries. They had taken out half the bone, so I was going on the other half," Wilson said. "That's why it snapped so easily. I broke what bone I did have in there. There was no support."
Those who joke about how weak he must be don't understand.
"A few people know the truth," he said.
Mike Babcock is a freelance writer who covers Nebraska football.
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