Healthy once again, Jorden is eager to return to CFL
Healthy, Penn Wood’s Kamar Jorden looks forward to return to CFL’s Calgary Stampeders
If you haven’t seen the social media video of former Penn Wood standout Kamar Jorden working out on a field in suburban Detroit in preparation for his seventh season in the Canadian Football League with the Calgary Stampeders, it’s worth a look.
The 10-second clip shows the 6-3, 204-pound Jorden making a one-handed, over-the shoulder catch. The grab, though, isn’t the most impressive part of the video. Just before he plucks the ball out of the air with his right hand, Jorden sprays it with a can of Lysol he is holding in his left hand.
In the age of coronavirus you can never be too safe.
“We already had it out there,” Jorden said of the can of disinfectant. “It was me, Devier Posey, who also played in the CFL and a quarterback, Seth Suida. We try to throw at least once a week and (Suida) actually was the one that said I should try to catch the ball with the Lysol in the air.”
Like every other athlete, pro, college or amateur, Jorden’s season is on hold. He was supposed to host his fourth annual football camp in Darby Saturday, but that was canceled until next year because of the coronavirus outbreak.
After that, Jorden was slated to report to training camp on May 17, his 31st birthday, with the season set to start June 12 against the Montreal Alouettes at home. But on April 7 the CFL announced that its season won’t start before July.
And so he works out, safely, of course. The trio makes sure to practice social distancing and uses disinfectants to wipe down balls (not necessarily mid-flight) and other equipment used in their workouts.
This is an important year for Jorden. The Darby native is trying to re-establish himself as one of the top receivers in the CFL after missing the final eight games and the playoffs of the 2018 season, plus the entire 2019 regular season after suffering a devastating injury to his right knee in a game against the Edmonton Eskimos on Sept. 3, 2018.
The 2006 Penn Wood All-Delco was rolled on by a teammate while blocking on a running play. He tore the ACL, MCL and PCL and dislocated the knee joint. At the time of the injury he was having the best season of his career. He was among the league leaders in receptions (55), receiving yards (944) and receiving touchdowns (six). The week before he was hurt, Jorden set a franchise record with 249 receiving yards in a win over Winnipeg. He was named to the Western Division all-star team despite missing nearly half the season.
The surgery to repair the damage took eight hours, he said. It would be 14 months before he was cleared to play.
“It was crazy,” Jorden said. “I’ve gotten hurt before but never a major injury. That was my first surgery ever. When I got home I couldn’t do anything. They had to teach me how to walk on crutches. I was on crutches about a month and a half.
“You learn to appreciate walking when you’re down like that. Little things like going to get the remote or going to the bathroom were difficult to do. Things that took me five seconds to do took three minutes. Once I got over that and started to look for things to improve my knee each day, find small wins each day and try to improve that way.”
The wins came, slowly. One thing that kept Jorden going through the arduous rehab was support from family, friends, teammates and opponents who reached out and offered encouragement. The faith the club showed in him was key, too. The Stampeders signed him to a two-year deal in Jan. 2019, four months after the injury.
“When you get hurt like that so many things go through your head,” Jorden said. “You just don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t know what the team is thinking. There’s so much uncertainty, so when those guys called my back and said they had faith in me that I would come back and that I was in their plans for the future. That’s the only club that I had been with in the CFL and for them to say that they were behind me until I got back on the field meant a lot. That was another reason for me to work hard to get back.”
Jorden slowly worked his way back. It would be a year before he was able to run routes and make cuts and was finally cleared to play in Calgary’s 35-14 playoff loss to Winnipeg Nov. 10. He caught two passes for 15 yards.
“That was definitely a moment I will never forget, more so before the game,” Jorden said. “I didn’t like my performances. I don’t give myself any excuses with the knee. I felt like I could have played a little better but everything before that game was really special.
“I was able to come out holding the team flag. That’s a tradition we have with the Stampeders and that was the first time I ever got to do that. The crowd gave me a little standing ovation. It was really special. It was a great moment. But just to be back on the field with my teammates after watching them grind and all the hard work I put in. I was just happy to be out with them again.”
Jorden is looking forward to the day he can rejoin his teammates and resume his career. He doesn’t know when that will be but he is healthy and ready for the challenge.
“The knee is doing a lot better,” Jorden said. “It’s such a long process to get to this point but I’m able to run around and run all the routes, able to cut and jump without any hitch in my step. I’m still rehabbing and it’s something I’ll have to be aware of for the rest of my career. I have to make sure I warm up properly before practice and games, but overall just being able to go out there and run routes fast, jump and cut and do all those things like I did before the injury is just amazing.”