DeCamillis Will Return For OTAs

By Scott Crisp

| Friday, Mar 26, 2010 | Updated 1:00 PM CDT

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NBCDFW.com

Dallas Cowboys special teams coach Joe DeCamillis at camp minus the neck brace.

Dallas Cowboys' special teams coach Joe DeCamillis, who missed the NFL Scouting Combine earlier in the month while rehabbing his injured neck, will return for team OTAs (organized team activities), the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports.

DeCamillis, of course, was injured in the May 2009 practice bubble collapse at Valley Ranch. He went through most of the off-season in a neck brace and missed only one game in 2009, due to an unrelated emergency appendectomy. This off-season, DeCamillis has visited specialists in Atlanta and worked on strengthening his neck and back at the Michael Johnson Performance Center in Dallas.

Head coach Wade Phillips said that DeCamillis is improving significantly.

"He’s doing all right," Phillips said, per the Star-Telegram. "Pain management is really the theme. He’s been in pain. I’ve never had a player get shot up 22 games in a row for pain. I’ve never asked a player to do anything like that, but he did that. Hopefully, that’ll start going away, subside some and he’s doing some therapy to try to help that. It’s been a tough year for him."

DeCamillis became something of a source of inspiration for the team and his peers on the staff last season by coaching through the considerable pain of his injuries. Even now, Phillips is quick to laud DeCamillis for his toughness and professionalism.

"We have players that play with pain but not with injury," Phillips said. "I think he coached with injury. I think that was a very courageous thing he did."

Related Topics Joe DeCamillis, Wade Phillips

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