Injured but not defeated: A small chapter in JJ McCarthy's bright future
Clay Petry writes about his experience dealing with injuries and how JJ McCarthy can come back stronger from his knee surgery
By Clay Petry
This might sound crazy but when I finished high school and accepted an offer to play football at the University of Pennsylvania, I truly thought that I was going to make it to the NFL. Other Ivy League guys have done it, right? I loved the game and I was willing to work for it. I believed that I was going to be the outlier. Pedal down. All in. Let’s go.
Unfortunately, four years later, my college stat line reads zero catches, zero yards, and zero touchdowns.
My career was cut short due to injuries. I strained my right hamstring four times during my freshman year, which is the same injury that kept Justin Jefferson sidelined for nine games in 2023. I didn’t have the best training staff, and every time I got hurt, I was rushed back after just two weeks, convinced I’d be good to go, just to run out onto the field and strain it again. This was difficult to deal with because I started wondering if I wasn’t doing enough. Before college I never dealt with pulls and strains, and quite honestly, it sounded soft. I started having a negative view of myself because I was “letting” these small injuries keep me out for a whole season.
That cycle continued until we brought in a new athletic trainer right before my sophomore year. He was shocked when he found out how I was being treated before and informed me of the severity of these injuries. The season was nearing, and we didn’t have a lot of time to correct these injuries. So we did the best we could leading up to my sophomore season and prayed for the best.
I ended up getting playing time in the first two games of the year and should have had a touchdown against Colgate. (Aidan Sayin, I will never let you live down that under-throw!) That would be the closest I ever got to scoring a college touchdown because the following week in practice, I strained my hamstring again. We were supposed to travel up to Dartmouth and play under the lights on national television. No way I was missing that game. So we did everything possible to try and get me ready for this game. We even tied multiple exercise bands to my leg to give me a “second hamstring.” I got subbed in early in the second quarter and went to run a post. I go to run my route, but I had no acceleration and could hardly move, so one play was all I could muster. That would be my last snap of football.
After that game, I finally had time with our new athletic trainer. We started with an assessment of both of my hamstrings and realized that I had developed nerve damage in my right hamstring from overuse and trying to return from injury too soon. Although this was scary to hear, it wasn’t career-ending. My trainer devised a plan, and we went to work doing extra strength and mobility training every day. Before meetings, after practice, even before I went to bed, I was always doing something to better my hamstring. Mentally, it was draining. I had to put in all of this work, and in the back of my mind, I had doubt. I was afraid that no matter what I did, it was just going to result in another strain.
I stuck to the game plan and did this for the rest of the season and into the Winter. By the time Winter camp rolled around, I was feeling good. I got off to a hot start and felt like I was on the right path. But about a week into camp, I strained my right hamstring again. This caused me to miss the majority of camp and was a huge blow to my confidence. I knew that spring camp was the most important time because that’s when reps are earned and depth charts are decided for the next season. I even got some added motivation because my position coach liked what I showed early in the season and early in camp, so he told me I was going to be competing with one other person for the X receiver spot (traditionally, the No. 1 receiver in an offense is the X) in the spring.
So I went back to work and trusted the process. I got healthy and made it through the Spring injury-free. Unfortunately, I never had a fair competition like I was told. Throughout camp, I didn’t get a single rep at the X position. Not only that, but they had me running with the third string at the Z position. I don’t know how I went from competing to be the No. 1 receiver on the team to third string, but I was not happy.
Due to the lack of opportunity and the fact that I was out for so long, I put a tremendous amount of pressure on myself. I was heading into my junior season, and I convinced myself that I had to be perfect on every rep because I knew I didn’t have many opportunities left. This caused me to be a shell of the player that I knew I could be. I was playing with zero confidence. I also fell into depression because I felt like I had been misled. I felt like I didn’t even have the chance to prove what I could do. It got to the point where I hated football. I would feel physically sick entering the facility every morning because of how pissed off I was. I felt that my time and talent were being wasted.
I eventually had a sit-down meeting with my head coach, offensive coordinator, and receivers coach. I told them exactly how I felt. I told them I was pissed because they told me one thing and did another. I told them it felt like none of them cared about me as a person. I told them how it feels like crap to give my all to something and it doesn’t even matter because my own coaches don’t believe in me. My head coach was offended that I told him I didn’t believe he cared about me. He responded by saying, “come on, cut me some slack, I have so many players I can’t possibly get to know all of them,” as if that was a reasonable excuse. That was followed by my offensive coordinator telling me, “it’s hard to believe in someone who is always injured.” This meeting broke me, and that was the moment I knew I was done with football. Seeing my coaches give up on me for things mostly out of my control was the moment that killed my dream.
I walked out of that meeting feeling defeated and went straight to my head athletic trainer—the one person who I thought still cared. I told him that my next practice would be my last. When I showed up the next day, I did so with a weight lifted off my shoulders. I stopped caring about the coaches, stopped thinking about my future, and simply played the game for fun one final time. That was my best collegiate practice by far—and it ended up being the last time I ever stepped on the field.
But what most people don’t realize is that the hardest part of injury isn’t the physical recovery—it’s the mental battle. The rehab itself is grueling, but it’s the self-doubt that lingers in the back of your mind that’s the real challenge. You start to question yourself in ways you never imagined. You wonder if you can ever return to the player you once were. You question whether you’ll ever do what you’ve spent your entire life preparing for.
I lost my battle with that doubt and fear but that doesn’t have to be the case for every athlete. Take JJ McCarthy, for example. Recently, he appeared on the Rich Eisen Show and discussed his own struggles this past season. When asked about his rookie year, McCarthy described it as “really hard…Going from 15-0 National Champion to your season ending and being a part of, but somewhat not being a part of that beautiful season that Minnesota had.”
That last line hit home for me, and it is clear that he faced not just physical challenges but mental ones as well. Referring to the team as “Minnesota” instead of “we” is evidence that he may have disconnected from the team during that period, perhaps feeling like he wasn’t truly part of it.
I’m sure JJ’s coaches and teammates were more supportive than mine were, but even with a great support system, it’s difficult to sit on the sidelines and watch someone else take your spot. Especially when you’ve worked so hard to get there, only to see someone like Sam Darnold step in and lead the team to 14 wins. That feeling of being on the outside looking in is tough to overcome.
But here’s the thing: injuries are only a small chapter in the greater story of an athlete’s career. McCarthy’s rookie season may have been derailed by his torn meniscus, but it’s just one season. One setback. His career is far from over. He still has the chance to prove himself in the NFL, and the true test for him, like all athletes facing adversity, is how he responds to this challenge.
It’s painful to watch your teammates take the field without you, to have put in all the hard work only to be sidelined. But this setback is also an opportunity for JJ to come back stronger. He has the chance to not only rebuild his physical health but also to strengthen his mental toughness. The way he handles the frustration, the self doubt, and the isolation will determine his future.
McCarthy only missed his rookie season. That’s a small blip in what’s going to be a long career. This year, being on the sidelines could be exactly what he needs to come back with renewed determination and drive. He has so much more to prove, not just to the world but to himself. His potential hasn’t disappeared—it’s still there, waiting to be unlocked.
It seems that his mind is in the right place. In that same interview with Eisen, when talking about the season ahead, JJ stated, “All I can ask for is a fair opportunity. That’s the one thing that I feel like everyone is given, and it’s fundamental… I really just have to focus on what I can control. My feelings don’t matter; I’m not getting any grace, there is no sympathy. This is the big leagues and just being able to approach it with steadfast, narrow, tunnel vision on the task at hand which is that workout that day, that film study, that extra little thing I’m going to do for my fiancée that day and just really staying in the moment because that gives me the most piece of mind through all this.”
With this mindset, I have full confidence in McCarthy’s ability to bounce back.
As for me, I know what it’s like to have injuries derail your plans, to feel invisible, and to question your worth. I also know that an athlete’s true character isn’t just defined by their physical ability—it’s shaped by their resilience, their mental toughness, and their drive to keep pushing forward. JJ McCarthy will have his chance to show what he’s made of, and when he does, it will be a testament to his strength, both physically and mentally. The future is bright for JJ McCarthy, and this is just the beginning of his story.
Even if you can’t make it as a football player, you can certainly make it as a writer. Great job!
Clay looking forward to reading your stuff, I think Matthew will be a good mentor, he’s shown to have mental toughness like yourself.