Youth Sports Post: Isaiah's Knee

The foot ball season opened here on Friday night. But there's something wrong with this picture.

My son, Isaiah, in the Adidas sweatshirt, was on the sideline.

Football is his first love. He's a gifted running back, and he was looking forward to this, his Sophomore year, and anticipating the chance to play with the Varsity. He had a great spring practice, and in two games of a spring football jamboree ran for three touchdowns.

But in the second game he took a helmet on the inside of his left knee. As he tells it, "I could hear it pop." An MRI would reveal that he had torn his ACL. So he's out for this season. He'll have surgery on September 12, and won't be able to participate in sports for six months.

He's going to practices, and he'll ride on the team bus to away games, but, as he says, "It's really hard." He's in a conditioning class, and is setting up workouts with coaches that will keep him in shape, and even incorporate rehab exercises after the surgery.

He's taking encouragement from Marcus Lattimore, who has come back from ACL surgery, and just ran for over a hundred yards in South Carolina's season opener; and Adrian Peterson, of the Minnesota Vikings, also coming back from ACL surgery.

Isaiah is worried. But he's beginning to believe that if they can do it, so can he.