How Football Changed My Life

Although I have had many injuries growing up, there is one that particularly changed my life for the better. The injury occurred when I was playing eighth grade football. It was August and we were scrimmaging Westfield; a very good team that had a lot of big players. The coach called me onto the field to play fullback, which means that I was probably going to carry the football. As I was running onto the field my heart started to beat a little faster. I had a bad feeling about getting the ball. I thought that I was going to get hurt because on the play prior the fullback ahead of me injured his knee on a run. Everything went well for the first few plays, but on the fifth play the coach called a fullback run. My heart was racing, at the snap of the ball I ran ahead for about an eight yard gain, but on the way down I felt a horrible pain in my right foot. I ended up going to the hospital a half an hour later, the doctor said that I had multiple fractures (6 to be exact), possibly some torn ligaments, and a dislocation of a few bones. I really did a number on myself. The doctor claimed to me that I would be out for at least 6 weeks, which is over halfway through the regular season. The doctor also highly recommended that I go see a sports injury specialist, or a foot specialist.

We decided to stick with the doctor at Mount Sinai because he seemed to be more cautious, and he would take time to examine what exactly I did, and if I would need surgery. It came down to a CAT scan, it would be decided that I did not need surgery, which would have been a metal plate, or two, and a few screws. Although, he gave me a cast (it was red, by choice, and it covered my whole foot and went up to about my knee) which he said it would need to stay on for 6 weeks, then we would go from