GREEN MOTIVATED BY OTHER COMEBACKS
Als’ receiver determined to play again after major knee injury last year
More than seven months after doctors told S.J. Green he may never play football again, the Alouettes receiver is drawing inspiration from what other star players have achieved following devastating knee injuries.
Green, one of the players brought to the heart of Rider Nation for Mark’s CFL Week, said he’s 80-85 per cent recovered from an injury in Montreal’s 28-13 loss to the Ottawa Redblacks last June 30. He had a complete tear of his medial collateral ligament, posterior cruciate ligament, anterior cruciate ligament as well as the meniscus in his right knee.
“I feel like the sky’s the limit,” said Green. “You watch guys like Adrian Peterson come back and rush for 2,000 yards after an ACL. You watch guys like Jordy Nelson come back and have 14 touchdowns and end up sixth in receiving. You watch guys like Tyrann Mathieu, he was able to come back and compete on a high level. You have guys like Zach Collaros and Chris Randle who have also motivated me. If they can do it, it’s possible.”
While the recovery has allowed him to be home with his wife and two kids since Aug. 16, he’s working hard to get back and do the things that S.J. Green does on the field, hoping to have the green light for training camp. Heading into his 11th season, the 6-foot-3 receiver has 444 catches for 6,626 yards in his career. He helped the Als win Grey Cups in 2009 and 2010.
“The off-season’s been great,” he said. “I’ve been taking it one day at a time, enjoying the family and trying to get healthy. I took my knee brace off last week to start running routes. I’ve been doing footwork on an incline. I’m past seven months post-op.
“There’s no way to imitate training camp or a professional football game in the off-season. I try to have people shadow me when I run routes so I can simulate it as much as I can. It’s just going to be one of those things where I have to trust my preparation and trust that my doctor says I’m healthy.”
The return of Green will be big for a Montreal team that has new GM Kavis Reed, Jacques Chapdelaine as coach and Darian Durant in as the starting quarterback.
“I think there’s an uplifting spirit going on around the team right now,” said Green.
“It’s a good vibe. We have a quarterback in Darian who has tons of experience and gets lots of respect around the league. We have a guy like Jacques who can organize everything the way he does. We just have to do what professionals do and put it together.”
A team that went 7-11 and finished in third place a year ago can get itself back in the conversation as contenders pretty quickly in the CFL.
“When you think about it, in 2012 Toronto won a Grey Cup and they were 9-9 in the regular season,” said Green. “Ottawa won a Grey Cup (and they were 8-9-1). It’s not about what your record is. It’s about how you finish the season. If you can get on a roll, you can do it.”
As for internal problems within the organization early in 2016, Green said that’s in the past.
“I don’t want to speak on it too much,” he said. “But at the end of the day there were some things going on that weren’t being regulated. It’s hard, as a veteran, to regulate things when you don’t have the support of upper management to help you manage those things.”
Green admits there are moments when he’s not sure what the future holds.
“I still have those thoughts,” he said. “You don’t know how you will come back. My doctors think I’ll be OK and I think I’ll be fine. But you never know. The doctors in Montreal told me I may never play football again. As an athlete, you never want to hear those words.”
The thought of not playing most of 2016 was painful.
“I couldn’t watch the games on TV last year,” he said.
“I’d put a game on, I couldn’t watch it, I’d start crying. So I’d watch NFL. I don’t feel sorry for myself. That’s life. We experience our ups and downs. At the end of the day, God has a plan and we have no control over that plan. I believe in that.”