Just. Like. That.
“One play,” said running backs coach Darrell Dickey, “and it’s done.”
Suddenly and callously.
Terence Brown’s story is a real tear-jerker — how he was on the cusp of becoming the Lobos’ starting running back when he was dealt an unfavorable blow last April.
Almost a year to the day later, on Saturday, Brown recollected the infamous practice with precise clarity.
“I remember the whole situation, the exact play,” Brown said. “It was a screen coming out of the backfield. It was a bad play from the start.”
But it got worse.
While his knee was extended, a teammate tumbled into it. Immediately, Brown collapsed, as if a chair had been removed from under him. The prognosis was grim. Brown tore his anterior cruciate ligament.
“It felt like I was getting stabbed in the knee,” Brown said.
Dickey, who has been coaching for years, knew the situation was serious as Brown writhed in pain.
“You can pretty much tell,” Dickey said. “You see things happen, and you’re like, ‘Oh, I know that hurt.’”
Still, if he was figuratively stabbed in the heart from the trauma, Brown masks it well.
As he reflects back on it, reminded by a black, machine-looking brace strapped to his right leg, Brown is deliberate, yet speaks in a less-than-somber tone, hardly dignifying the laborious ordeal he has faced getting back to 100 percent.
There are hints slipped into the conversation, however.
“I felt like it was my time to shine, and it got taken away from me,” Brown said. “I was hoping it wasn’t serious. I had no clue what it was. I had never been hurt like that. It was my first major injury. It was a weird feeling for me.”
Typically, when something of this gravity happens to a player, they seep down into a pothole of depression. With Brown, Dickey said it was different. Brown involved himself in other activities. Currently, Brown is running to be an ASUNM senator.
Meanwhile, Brown’s teammates and family refused to allow him to delve into the depths of mental depravity.
Brown said his teammates shared words of encouragement. Stuff like: “Man, if you were here, I think things would be different.” Dickey, too, had a message for Brown. It was simple: Don’t allow yourself to fall by the wayside.
If spring practice has served as any indication, those words remained with Brown.
Amazingly, his return has been anything but awkward. He slivered through crevices an earthworm couldn’t navigate. His mobility didn’t appear to be impeded, as he scored three touchdowns, one from about 25-30 yards out.
Likewise, there was no trace of worry on Brown’s part about re-injuring himself.
“It’s at a point now that I try not to think about it at all,” Brown said. “Just go out there like a daredevil and just run.”
Brown displaces that anxiety on other people, specifically Dickey.
“He did it this spring. He ran a stretch play, and both his legs went out from under him,” Dickey said. “I thought he had hurt himself again. He popped up, and said, ‘Nah, I’m all right.’”
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Getting to this point, though, has been about putting Brown back in the situation he was injured — by running screens, as well as other plays.
“I think early in the spring, he was what we call, ‘tentative,’” Dickey said.
But that hesitation in Brown’s step has dissipated, and Dickey couldn’t be more proud.
“It’s good to see a kid that has something bad happen to him handle it correctly and not sit around and feel sorry for himself,” Dickey said.
