HE HAS ARRIVED
Long past a severe high school injury, Chesapeake’s Josh Sweat eyes his first Super Bowl
Josh Sweat was an unquestioned, can’t-miss superstar-in-waiting as a senior at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake.
Most recruiting services rated Sweat as the country’s No. 1 senior football player in the class of 2014, and he had more than 50 colleges pursuing him — including Ohio State, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia Tech and Florida State.
Then, a routine play in the third game of his senior season changed everything.
Sweat collided with a teammate on an extra-point attempt, grabbed his leg, grimaced in pain and fell to the ground. Paramedics carted Sweat off the field and to the hospital.
“Looking at my leg and seeing my kneecap was on the side and the way my leg was bent, I knew there was no way I would play again unless there was some miracle,” Sweat said back then. “I pretty much realized my season was over.”
Sweat’s season was over for sure, but some wondered whether he’d ever play football again.
Shortly after his injury, a nurse told him his football career was over.
That only served as motivation, and when the defensive lineman suits up for the Philadelphia Eagles in Sunday’s Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs, that horrifying injury will move farther in his rearview mirror. Sweat will be the first Oscar Smith alumnus to play on the NFL’s biggest stage.
“This is what I’ve been working for,” Sweat told reporters last week during a Super Bowl media day. “I didn’t even know this was a possibility.”
“Honestly, it hasn’t hit me yet, to be honest with you,” Sweat added. “The craziness of it hasn’t hit me. They’re doing a good job of making it feel like it’s regular workdays. I know that once we get there, it will be different, but right now, it’s normal.”
Former Ocean Lakes High star Derrick Nnadi, Sweat’s teammate at Florida State, will be on the opposite sideline Sunday. Both were named to The Virginian-Pilot’s All-Tidewater team in 2013. Nnadi, a defensive tackle, is making his third Super Bowl appearance with the Chiefs.
After his injury, Sweat wasn’t alone in wondering whether he’d play football again, let alone enjoy an NFL career.
Richard Morgan, Sweat’s coach at Oscar Smith, is among those who will be cheering in front of his TV Sunday.
“It’s going to be great. It was like when I watched him play his first college game. Watched him
get drafted. Watched him play in his first NFL game. They’re all great moments,” said Morgan, who now coaches at Marietta High in Georgia. “But this is like the pinnacle of the sport. The Super Bowl is the biggest game in any sport in the world. To have a guy in that game — that’s awesome.”
Morgan vividly remembers the day Sweat got hurt. Morgan, a fierce competitor, was teary-eyed after the game when he talked about the devastating injury.
Now he shakes his head in amazement at how far Sweat has come.
“When I look at it, it’s just everything that Josh went through,” Morgan said. “He was the best player in the country, there was no question about that. Then he suffers that injury and you’re like, it’s hit or miss for awhile. Is he going to be OK? Is he going to play again? You know, all of those questions.
“To see him where he was in a hospital bed in 2014 and now he’s going to a Super Bowl eight years later is a great, great story. I was just very happy for him and all his hard work has paid off.”
Sweat underwent surgery a few weeks after his injury and began the long road to recovery. A 6-foot-5, 240-pound senior, Sweat had rare speed for his size, and during rehab, wondered if his knee injury would scare off college coaches.
“He never complained. I never heard him say, ‘Why me?’ ” Sweat’s mother, Carlette, said last week. “He always tried to keep a smile on his face. I know he was feeling something inside, but he never showed it.”
But coaches were confident in his recovery, and then-Ohio State coach Urban Meyer and then-Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher were among those still recruiting Sweat.
With his parents by his side, Sweat picked the Seminoles a day after Fisher flew in for a last-minute push. Sweat teamed with Nnadi, who was already at Florida State.
Sweat, always serious about education, graduated from Oscar Smith that December and enrolled early at Florida State. Some schools wanted Sweat to redshirt — sit out a year — because of the injury, but Sweat was determined to play.
“Some people have this injury and it takes them a year or more to come back,” William Washington, Sweat’s father, said recently. “By the time September came, he was starting at Florida State. He just worked and worked.”
Sweat played in 12 games as a freshman and over the next two seasons, remained in the lineup for 23 games.
On Jan. 4, 2018, Sweat announced he would forgo his senior year and enter the NFL Draft.
To prove to NFL scouts his knee wasn’t an issue, he attended the 2018 NFL Combine and ranked first among defensive linemen in the 40-yard dash (4.53 seconds) and vertical jump (39 ½ inches).
The Eagles drafted Sweat in the fourth round (130th overall) in 2018 — one round after the Chiefs selected Nnadi 75th overall.
Sweat, who in 2021 signed a three-year, $40 million contract extension with the Eagles, has 153 career tackles and 28 ½ sacks over five seasons. He’s also been to a Pro Bowl.
This season, he has 31 tackles with 11 sacks, which rank 14th in the NFL. He also scored his first NFL touchdown when he returned an interception 42 yards against the Dallas Cowboys on Christmas Eve.
Still, Sweat’s career hasn’t come without more challenges.
He finished his rookie season in 2018 (ankle) and the 2020 season (wrist) on injured reserve, and missed last season’s wild-card game against Tampa Bay when he was hospitalized and underwent surgery for what the Eagles called a “life-threatening” abdominal situation.
This season, he suffered a neck injury in the first quarter of a January game against the New Orleans Saints. Eerily similar to the injury he suffered in high school, he lay motionless on his back as the Philadelphia crowd was hushed.
Sweat was wheeled off the field on a stretcher and was hospitalized. But when he was released that evening, he took to social media to vow that he would return this season.
Sweat has, and he’s played in all 18 Eagles’ games. He has six tackles and 1 ½ sacks in playoff victories over the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers.
“He’s what you would call a 1 percentile,” said Shon Mitchell, the quarterback on Sweat’s team at Oscar Smith. “The fact that he made it to the NFL. Even more so, he’s got the opportunity to become a Super Bowl Champion. I can’t be more happy for him. I can’t think of a guy who is more deserving.
“Josh worked his butt off in high school. He had God-given abilities that absolutely nobody had. We all knew that. The whole country knew that. But to be able to cultivate that and nurture those gifts and abilities to make something of it, Josh had that charisma and that character to do so. I’m just so excited for him. Everything that he’s put in is returning back to him tenfold.”
Added Morgan, “The work ethic that he has is why he’s in the NFL. It’s why he’s playing in the Super Bowl. It’s the work ethic to make the most of that ability that he was given.”
Sweat’s mother and siblings will be in Arizona for the game, although Washington will watch from home because his father died last week.
They’ll be cheering what has been an improbable — some thought impossible — journey to the Super Bowl.
“I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet,” Carlette said. “It’s special for him and that’s what makes it special for me and my family. I’m just so happy for him and for everything that he’s overcome. My baby has made it. It’s just going to be so amazing. Who would have thought?”