Tight end Cam McCormick has learned a great deal since breaking his fibula and tearing his deltoid ligament against Bowling Green in the 2018 season opener.
He’s learned how to be resilient. He’s learned the art of patience and avoiding blame. He’s learned innumerable amounts of medical terminology –– and that, at some point, football does inevitably end.
McCormick’s endured injury hell. When he spoke to reporters during Oregon’s fall camp, it took the now 23-year-old over two minutes to expound on the complex rehab process that has consumed the entirety of his early 20’s. After months of answering the same questions to teammates, friends and family, he knew they were coming. It was almost rehearsed.
The rehab was only supposed to take one offseason. McCormick was supposed to be an integral part of Oregon’s 2019 Rose Bowl team.
He never even made it on the field.
In Oregon’s 2019 fall camp, discomfort from his first surgery crept up. The tightrope surgery led to a hardware malfunction, and the screws previously planted in his lower leg were removed and replaced –– another year lost.
McCormick watched from the sidelines, yet again, as Oregon found itself firmly back in the national picture.
Summer conditioning 2020: more discomfort in his ankle. Doubt set in.
“I thought I’d be good by now,” he remembers thinking.
This time, the hardware previously lodged in his leg led to a stress fracture in his medial malleolus. COVID-19 struck, but McCormick was bound for a full year of rehab either way.
With limited success locally, Oregon’s coaches and trainers set him up with Green Bay-based surgeon Bob Anderson. Anderson performed full reconstructive surgery on the ankle; he took the screws out, repaired the battered tendons and fixed a pronation that had snuck up as a result of the previous ankle trauma.
“Do I even want to continue to play football?” he said. “I was trying to think whether I could put my body through that anymore.”
McCormick sighed as he finished his explanation. “Now I’m here,” he said. “It’s been a long three years.”
“Best I’ve felt in a really long time,” he added, with an air of caution.
Medical retirement would likely have lured some away from the game. Others may have fallen out of shape. McCormick kept his eyes on football — the sport that has been a part of his life every year since he was a young child — never ignoring the bigger picture.
He made sure to keep his other interests simmering on the back burners. McCormick is working on his master’s in advertising and brand responsibility. He’s nearly finished. He’s also got two internships in his back pocket: one with Fidelity Investments as an underclassmen and a second with Eugene Police Department this past summer.
McCormick has set himself up for success outside of the gridiron, but his dreams within it are still very much alive.
“I’ve got some things to accomplish on the field for myself to feel good,” he said. “Until I do that I’m going to stick around.”
Due to his medical redshirts, the senior has two more seasons of eligibility after this one. He’s all in. What’s he got to lose?
He’s on the brink of being a full-go. It’s the closest he’s got to being a true participant in quite some time. There will be a mental block, a touch of PTSD, but he’s already been through this process twice. He knows what to expect.
“You just got to push past it,” he said. “It’s going to be there no matter what.”
Barring another unforeseen setback, one of Oregon’s early season games could be due for a moving moment –– a moment that validates McCormick’s hard work, reinforces his will to keep fighting and perhaps provides a tad bit of closure.
“When you’re with someone every single day and you’re grinding together, you’re in the weight room all summer,” third-year tight end Spencer Webb said. “I know what he’s been through, and I know what his family’s been through with that situation. I’m going to be the freaking loudest one on the sideline [when he gets out there]. I’ll probably run on the field and get a penalty.”
He added: “We haven’t really talked about it, but I might shed a tear.”
“I might shed a tear myself,” McCormick said.
The plodding, methodical road back could reach a head at long last.
“Football comes to an end at some point, but not yet for me,” McCormick said.
