A monster hit may have saved Washington QB's life

	Washington QB Johnny DuRocher is thankful doctors were able to remove a tumor in his brain and hopes to play baseball this spring. AP
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Bo McNally had already picked off Johnny DuRocher earlier in the quarter, but there the Washington quarterback was, lobbing a perfect spiral right at McNally again.

The Stanford cornerback plucked the ball at midfield, DuRocher went in for a tackle, two other Cardinal players leveled him, and McNally raced into the end zone, breaking open what would become Stanford's lone win of this season.

Today, Washington offensive coordinator Tim Lappano is fairly sure it was the best play of the year for the Huskies. Maybe of his 25-year career.

"I've seen a lot of crazy things," Lappano said, "but I've never seen a hit that saved a person's life."

Turns out, that's exactly what that ugly dirt-feeding, concussion-inducing thump did. See, hiding inside DuRocher's brain, under his shag of hair, was a plum-sized brain tumor.

After being taken off the field, Washington trainers put DuRocher into the MRI machine, pads and all. They saw the odd-looking mass, they showed DuRocher and the 22-year old decided he couldn't worry right then.

"I was kind of loopy," DuRocher remembered.

The junior had a higher magnet image taken a couple days later, and in November on the Friday just before the Apple Cup, he sat in Dr. Richard Ellenbogen's office at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center. His mom was weepy, his dad was nervous and he desperately tried to be serious. The tumor was benign, Ellenbogen said.

"Am I going to die?" DuRocher asked.

"No," the neurosurgeon said.

"Does it have to come out?" he asked.

"Yes," Ellenbogen said.

"Alright, cool, let's do it," he said.

When Lappano left the 49ers and first brought his offense to Husky Stadium two springs ago, it was DuRocher who cajoled the wideouts and tight ends into winter throwing sessions. It was DuRocher who logged hours picking at Lappano's playbook, going over Xs and Os and "trying to convince me," Lappano said, "to run crackerjack plays."

Before the start of the 2005 season, DuRocher split snaps with Isaiah Stanback right up until a week before the Huskies' opener. When he found out transferring from Oregon made him ineligible for the first three games. Later in the year, just as DuRocher was starting to see some time, he broke his wrist.

He lost this year's backup battle to Carl Bonnell and he probably should have faded into irrelevance, what with hotshot freshman Jake Locker on campus. Not Johnny.

"A lot of kids would've been a problem, but Johnny's the epitome of team player," Lappano said. "He became my second hand with Jake, teaching him how to watch film, how to be on campus, how to study -- he really mentored and tutored this kid.

"I love him."