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By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
The athlete, unblemished and fully healthy, does not really know. He thinks he does, he thinks he knows how much he loves that sport that has always been a part of his life. But he doesn't. He doesn't truly know until he is injured and that sport is stripped from him. "That's very true, and this is why," says Northwestern wide receiver Christian Jones.
"You wake up every day, you put your pads on, you go out and practice, you get beat up, you're sore at the end of they day and you think, `God, I've got to do this again tomorrow.' But you never realize until you pull your hamstring or sprain your ankle and can't do that again for a week, then you start missing putting the pads on, you starting missing the sweat, you start missing getting hit. I missed it every day I was out here watching. You take it for granted, and you don't realize how much you take it for granted until you hurt yourself."
Christian Jones tore up the ACL and meniscus in his right knee the spring before his senior year in high school. This was his first serious injury and he was so untutored, he recalls, "I didn't know what an ACL injury was then. So it was all new to me."
And how did he react?
"It was very hard. When you're in high school, you want to go to college and all you're thinking about is playing college ball and playing in the NFL. So I thought I'd never play football again because all I heard was it's a serious injury and people don't come back the same way. So all I was thinking was I don't think I'll ever be able to play again, or I'll never be able to play with my team."
Then last August up in Kenosha, as he prepared for his senior season as a 'Cats wide receiver, Jones' left knee buckled after a play had been blown dead. "I was literally stopping to go back for the next play. . .(and) it felt the exact same," he says of that moment he tore up the ACL and meniscus in that knee. "When I told my mom, she already knew."
How many swear words ran through his mind at that moment?
He laughs. "I can't tell you how many," he then says. "I can't, oh, man, it was a lot. Then I thought of everybody else out there and how I wouldn't be able to play with them and everything I was going to miss and having to watch my teammates. It was a bummer."
Was it even harder since the receivers, as a group, struggled last season?
"It's always tough. Watching a team, watching people you've known a long time go out there and not play to the level they think they can play to, not play to the level you think they can play to, it was hard. Some of those games I didn't travel, so I couldn't walk along the bench and tell them, `You've got to pick this up, you've got to do this, you've got to watch that.' I'm a fan at that point and I'm going through the ups-and-downs like everyone else.
"I had no control and it was very, very hard to see that, especially when you think you could have gone out there and maybe helped. It was difficult."
It was a difficult year for Christian Jones. But all through it he was a constant presence at practices, where he would help coach up that group that could have used his special skills. "He was great. He was terrific. He's a special guy," remembers head coach Pat Fitzgerald.
"As soon as I hurt it, I was crying and all that stuff," says Jones, explaining his positive presence. "But my mom told me, `Don't ever let anybody see you cry. You go out there, you act like you're going to play in practice, act like you're preparing for the game. You go to meetings. You do all that.' I followed her words to a T. I didn't let it affect me, and I tried to show up everyday."
A skeptic wonders if he really was unaffected, if just maybe he didn't have a down day or two.
"Everybody has a down day or two," he admits. "But I wouldn't let it happen when I was around my teammates. That was one thing I tried to do. If I was having a bad day, I'd get in my truck and drive 30 minutes away and let my day be bad. But I wouldn't do it around my teammates. I wouldn't let it affect them."
And what got him out of those down days?
"My mom (Tammye Curtis-Jones). She's had two knee replacements. She's had it worse than me. So anytime I wanted to complain, I'd go to her and she'd tell me what she went through. Then I'm like, `OK. I'll be fine. I'll be back.'"
Back in high school, after he tore up his right knee, Christian Jones got back fast enough to play the final four games of his senior season. Last year, after he tore up his left knee, that experience served him well as he went through rehabilitation. "I learned," he explains, "that even when I think I can't do something, I know if I go out there and keep working at it, I can get it back. It's a lot easier knowing what you have to do next. It was good knowing I had goals to push for every day."
It was good, too, that he is blessed with the wisdom of a sage elder, with that mature perspective that led him to so regard the needs of his teammates and to care so much for their well being. This helped him skirt the depression that can hang like a cloud over an injured athlete. Still, he says, "I was very sad. It was hard to know that I wouldn't be able to play the game.
"But there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I knew that, once I got out of surgery, it was going to be a climb. But at the end of that climb I was going to be able to play again. So I really had nothing else to be bummed out about. Some people lose things for their lives, their loved ones or something. I only lost a game. I couldn't be mad about that. I got another year to play. I got another year to get another degree. So there were too many positives for me to be negative about it."
Christian Jones will receive his undergraduate degree in Learning and Organizational Change in June and, the next month, start work at Kellogg on a masters in Science and Management Studies. But already, this March, he is back with the `Cats at spring practice, where he goes through individual drills wearing the red shirt that means he cannot be hit. Still, he is expected to be full go by the time of fall camp and, even more importantly, he has already proven to himself that his knee can be trusted.
That crucial moment came last month when he was running routes by himself. "I knew I had to speed cut it, which is really a hard one for me. It's always been hard," he remembers. "I was like, `I don't know if I'm going to tear it again.' Then I said the heck with it and went out there and ran it. Once I realized I could do it, the sky was the limit for me after that."
"He's a pro prospect and he acts like a pro everyday," says Fitzgerald. "He's a guy who works hard in the film room, in the weight room, taking care of his body, and he comes out to practice everyday with a great attitude because he's had it taken away from him. He gets it and he's trying to impart that wisdom on his teammates. That to me is his biggest strength. He's the full package. He's a fun guy to coach."
The athlete, unblemished and fully healthy, does not really know. He thinks he does, he thinks he knows how much he loves that sport that has always been a part of his life. But he doesn't. He doesn't truly know until he is injured and that sport is stripped from him, which will imbue him with a new perspective once he returns. "It's changed a lot," Christian Jones will finally say when asked about that.
"I enjoy the little drills now. Circle drills. I enjoy all of it now. I realize now I won't get to do it again for much longer, depending on what happens. I realize I have to appreciate every year, every day, every minute, every (practice) period, every catch that I make when I'm out here."
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