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Buccaneers WR Jalen McMillan made his return in Week 15 and was elated to play his first game of the season after he fractured three vertebrae in his neck during the preseason and was told by his doctor that he was lucky he wasn’t paralyzed.
He recently spoke to the public for the first time since the August injury.
“I mean, it was dark for me at first,” said McMillan, via Jenna Laine of ESPN. “First, I felt good, and I thought it was just a minor injury, and then the doctor said I almost got paralyzed, so it kind of scared me a little bit. And then there was doubt too because I didn’t know if I was going to be playing again. I kept having to try to wake up with a positive attitude. At first, I didn’t for like a week, two weeks, and I was just sad and depressed. But then the mode switched, I was to wake up, do positive things, find small wins, and celebrate small wins throughout the day. It took a lot. And just to get back to that moment, and to just vision and just to see what I could potentially do if I come back — that’s what I was thriving off of and just kept motivating myself off of.”
“It’s about embracing your journey, really,” McMillan continued. “It sucked for me because people would tell me, like, ‘Oh, you’re going to be back. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.’ But then again, in the back of my head, it’s like, ‘I’m not sure if I’ll be back, but I’m going to try to approach every day as if I am.’ So it just took everything in me. It took waking up, reading, finding new hobbies of mine, trying to explore different aspects of my life just so I could try to level up outside of football. When they cleared me, I was really, really emotional. But during the game, I had seen the vision so many times that the ball — just seeing the ball came naturally, just because I dreamed of it back. It feels normal. It felt like I didn’t really miss a beat, just my head being in football and just every day being consistent in practice habits, I kind of approached every week like that as if I were playing so that when I came back it didn’t feel different or alien.”
“[The doctor] said, ‘I have God on my side.’ I’m just blessed,” McMillan added. “I grew as a person, and I’m just honored to play this game. I want to give everything to this game.”
