“It was like my world was crushed. I thought I was
done. I thought football for me was done forever."
A
senior football player had
just undergone surgery to
repair a torn meniscus. It
was a year during which he
wanted to prove something
after fracturing his femur in
his junior season. He really wanted to show
colleges that he could play at the next level.
But when injured again, he did not think he
was ever going to play again. Somehow that
senior worked hard enough, and with some
help, found a way to play college football and
currently finds himself about to play in the
National Football League. That senior, Haason
Reddick, took an unconventional path to get
to where he is today. It is a path that has set
him up to have what he loves to do become his
profession. He will be a professional football
player.
Reddick played high school football at Haddon
Heights High School, where he was a safety
and a running back. His junior season was cut
short after he fractured his femur. Determined
to come back, Reddick rehabbed his knee and
started preparing for a major senior season.
Then during preseason practices, he tore the
meniscus in his knee.
getting the surgery, I had to be pushed to my
mother’s car. That was when I realized I could
not walk on my own, and that is when reality
set in. I knew how crucial my senior year was.
Because I had gotten hurt my junior year and
didn’t play any games, I knew my senior year
was important. After playing three games and
knowing that I would not have enough time to
show what I was able to do, I was hurt.”
Thinking that his football days were done, he
was upset about the thought of not playing
football ever again.
“It was like my world was crushed. I thought
football for me was done forever. I remember
riding home with my mother in the car after
surgery. It was a good 45-minute drive, and I
cried all the way home. My mom was trying
to tell me that everything was going to be all
right. My mother said it was all a part of God’s
plan. He would not do anything that I could
not handle. When I go back and think about
it, I realize he did not give me anything I could
not handle.”
“When I first tore it, I was still able to play on
it,” Reddick said. He went on to play for three
games. However, something did not feel right
with his knee, and he went to get it checked
out again.
“While playing on it, it got worse, and the tear
was becoming larger. I went to the doctor, and
he told me that the damage to the meniscus
was getting worse, and if I continue that, I may
not be able to run in my later years. I had to
think about it and what I was going to do.”
Reddick decided to get the surgery, meaning
that he would not be able to come back and
finish the rest of the season.
“At the time when I made the decision to
get surgery, reality had not set in yet. After
8
Hasson Reddick at Pro day.