Some people started to wonder if I was done.
There was a time when I genuinely wondered, “Am I done?”
I didn’t feel like myself. I had never even had one major surgery before, much less three in one year. To have the game taken away from me three times — each time left to wonder if I would ever be the same again — that was hard. That was the first time the word retirement had ever crept into my head.
Then I went home.
Since that last surgery, I’ve spent the past two months recovering back in Wisconsin. Not allowed to play football, not allowed to train, not allowed to do anything more than walk. There were no interviews, no social media, no commercials, no appearances, no anything. For the first time in 18 years, I took a step back, away from everything.
I hadn’t had the months of October and November “open” on my calendar since the fourth grade. I was nine years old then, and in my town, you weren’t allowed to start playing tackle football until you were 10. Only one more year.
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