The game of football is cruel by design. Run as fast as you can and collide with the person in the other color shirt. Take him down by any means necessary at times.
That’s inherent to the nature of the game, and we get it, but it hits you in your core when it becomes not about just the game, but also about humanity, about longevity and livelihood.
That’s why Marcus Lattimore retired Wednesday.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but the last time I would see Lattimore at his best was while I was walking into the 2012 Florida-Georgia game.
That day, I walked into the stadium as the CBS pregame show was playing on the TVs throughout EverBank Field. They showed highlights of Lattimore running during a three-point South Carolina victory that day. I didn’t watch the whole package, as I was on my way to my seat.
What I didn’t see until later that night was the simple carry that effectively ended his football career.
The guard pulls left and South Carolina runs power, a play Lattimore with all his God given ability must have executed thousands of times.
A linebacker hits him high, a defensive back hits him low, his leg flops gruesomely and he rips his helmet off in anguish while the trainers attend to him — you know he knows what this means.
If you’ve had a knee injury, one of your biggest fears is having it happen to you again. I tore my ACL sixth months before Lattimore’s incident against Tennessee that day.
The fear is real.
I was introduced to Lattimore during his freshman year like many of you were.
He roared onto the scene and then backed up the hype most poignantly to the tune of 212 yards on 40 carries against the Gators. South Carolina clinched the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium that night while Lattimore ran, and ran and ran and ran. Florida had no answer.
The next season, he tore his left ACL and his MCL in a game against Mississippi State. You felt bad for him and prayed he would be back healthy. He came back for the next season and then, damnit, it happened again in the matchup against Tennessee. That time he tore three ligaments in his right knee.
Why him? Why a player with so much promise and natural ability — not saying of course that I’d wish the fate on anyone — but it seems like a double gut punch when you think of his promise and his potential.
The what ifs will haunt those that enjoyed him play. I can’t imagine how much they will stay with the man who lived through the rehab, fought to get into shape, achieved his dream by being drafted into the NFL only to come to the realization Wednesday that his knee injury was "insurmountable."
Insurmountable, defined as something being "Too great to overcome." Synonyms: unconquerable, indomitable and unbeatable.
That’s the word he used to describe his plight in the statement he released announcing that his professional football career was done. The hope exhausted, all avenues are a dead end, the dream done.
He’ll return to the school that gave him a stage to showcase his talents to finish his degree, to satisfy the "student" part of student-athlete. His quarterback believes he’s in capable hands.
"It’s unfortunate that he’s retiring. It’s hard to cope with that kind of injury, but he’s going to be just fine doing whatever he ends up doing. The people of South Carolina will take good care of him," Stephen Garcia told alligatorSports.
And so Lattimore enters into a new beginning.
There’s no telling what lies ahead for Marcus Lattimore in the distant future, but here’s hoping whatever it is, it’s attacked with the same intensity he brought to opposing defenses.
He’ll certainly be missed on fall weekends.
Follow Richard Johnson on Twitter @RagjUF
In this Oct. 27, 2012, file photo, South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore (21) rushes up field after taking the hand off from quarterback Connor Shaw, back, during an NCAA college football game against Tennessee in Columbia, S.C.
