Northampton Native Dr. Russell Warren has Treated New York Giants for 30 Years

The Daily Hampshire Gazette—February 3, 2012

Russell Warren never made it to the NFL as a player. But Sunday evening at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Dr. Russell Warren will be participating in his fifth Super Bowl.

The 1958 graduate of Northampton High School is the team doctor for the New York Giants. They take on the Patriots in Super Bowl 46, a matchup between the franchise Warren tried out for 50 years ago against the franchise that was in its infancy when he was a teenager growing up in western Massachusetts.

While a career as a professional football player never materialized for Warren following his collegiate playing days at Columbia University, his own athletic experiences helped him become one of the top orthopedic surgeons in the country at the top-rated orthopedic hospital in the country, Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, as well as a vital cog in the success of the Giants the past three decades.

Warren has been a part of the three previous New York Super Bowl victories - against Denver to cap off a 1986 championship season and upset victories against Buffalo in 1990 and the Patriots four seasons ago - and a 34-7 loss against Baltimore to end the 2000 campaign.

"The Super Bowl is one of these games where the high of winning is so high but the low of losing is low," Warren said.

A dislocated shoulder kept him from playing football his sophomore and junior years at Northampton. He played despite the injury never completely healing as a senior and then on through college.

"I finally got (the shoulder) fixed when I was in the Navy," Warren said. "I kind of had a medical interest just because of my own problems. I kept pursuing the sports side of it and we developed this department here."

U.S. News & World Report's 2011-12 rankings of hospitals nationwide lists HSS No. 1 in orthopedics.

Warren said HSS now has a staff of nearly 30 people who specialize in sports medicine as well as a fellowship program that brings in young doctors each year to learn about the discipline. HSS doctors are also team physicians for the NBA Knicks and Nets, the Mets of Major League Baseball, the New York Liberty of the WNBA and Major League Soccer's New York Red Bulls as well as other area college programs. Warren was named the Outstanding NFL Team Physician of the Year in 2004.

"The NFL has been a fun thing because we've been able to incorporate our fellowship program with the Giants so it's been an educational tool as well," Warren said. "These guys rotate throughout the year. We've written a number of papers over the years about injuries with high contact sports."

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