By Rich Winter
605 Sports

During last spring's abbreviated spring season of All-Nations football Todd Stabler made some huge noise early. The shifty running back shredded his way to four TD's as his Chiefs raced to a big win.

The next week, Stabler's spring and football career took an unexpected step back.

“I went out for a sweep and someone grabbed my ankle,” Stabler said. “The ankle landed underneath my body weight and I fractured my ankle.”

Fractured ankles heal but in Stabler's situation he had a BAD break to recover from.

“I had surgery and they had to put a plate and a couple of screws in it,” he said.

From there Stabler was a good teammate but struggled not being on the field.

“I wanted to be out there playing, I couldn't and that was pretty frustrating,” he said.

The son of Lamar Bertucci and Racquel Cook spent the rest of the spring and the entire summer strapped to a cast. That cast came off three weeks ago and the 5-foot-3, 145 RB says he's been cleared for full contact.

“I've been cleared and everything feels pretty good,” he said. “My mobility is still there, I just have to get used to moving around and getting my leg stronger.”

Even without Stabler the Chiefs reached the All-Nations semi-finals where they were knocked off by eventual champions Tiospa Zina.

On this year's team Stabler offers this as a preview.

“We're doing pretty good,” he said. “We have a pretty young team this year with a lot of sophomores and juniors.”