HEAD BOY AT THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS
Family heartbreak and horrific injuries.. nobody has suffered more than Jason Pierre-Paul, who never gave up on his Super Bowl dream
Nine years ago, he beat the league’s greatest-ever quarterback, Tom Brady, to win Super Bowl XLVI.
Tomorrow night, he will attempt to help Brady win a seventh crown as his teammate on the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers when they take on the Kansas City Chiefs.
But since his one Super Bowl success, JPP has survived blowing off one and a half fingers in a fireworks accident, a car crash where his coach thought he may never walk again, and surgery to remove a disc from his spine.
He also suffered the trauma of growing up with a father who mysteriously went blind shortly before he was born.
All of it, however, has given him the sort of attitude needed to survive more than a decade in the NFL trenches and overcome his personal obstacles. Pierre-Paul said: “Resiliency is never giving up, being there for somebody when they need you and being yourself in good times or bad times, never changing.
“I’ve been through a lot. My father, him being blind at the age of 30 and me being born, he had to look after me while my mum worked.
“He did all he could and he never quit.
“And today, he’s still joyful and laughing, and happy that I’m in another Super Bowl.”
The Independence Day celebration, on July 4 2015, was where life took a dramatic turn. JPP had been enjoying the festivities, lighting fireworks at home with friends. He accidentally set off the last one of the night while it was still in his right hand.
Rushed to hospital, his hand blackened and burned, the decision was taken four days later to amputate the index finger.
He had also lost the top half of his middle finger.
Nothing was going to stop him playing again though.
He said: “It’s about never quitting. To all those people out there that are facing something, six years ago I went through the hand injury with the fire incident and then last year I had a broken neck.
“So you have to look at the things you can do in life. “There’s going to be people who say you can’t do it because they can’t do it but if you put your mind to it and put God first, you can do whatever you want to in life. “No matter how hard it seems, don’t quit. It’s easier said than done but I never quit at anything in life.”
All of it has left Buccaneers’ head coach, Bruce Arians, gasping at his defensive end’s hunger to overcome and succeed. He said: “It’s amazing. “Jason is a medical genetic freak – the way he can bounce back from severe injury.
“That car wreck, I was just hoping he was going to be able to walk. Football was the furthest thing from my mind but he told me, ‘I’ll be back.’
“He is a rolling ball of energy every day. He is the best guy at playing injured and being tough that I know.”
JPP’s first Super Bowl came early in his career and this time he has advice for youngsters on the team, advice that fits perfectly with his own life story.
He said: “Take everything in because tomorrow is not promised and the Super Bowl is not promised next year.
“It took me nine years to get back to this point. Be excited. I’m excited! You never know if this chance will come again.”