Jonathan McNeill is an addict and nothing can make him give up his compulsion – not unbearable pain, multiple trips to the emergency room or even the loss of bladder use.
The Lehman High School senior isn’t into drugs, though. He doesn’t smoke or drink.
The obsession that causes him so much pain? Football.
“When you’re on the field, you get that adrenaline rush,” McNeill said with a wide, mischievous grin. “When you hit that person just right, it’s the best feeling in the world.”
The physicality and violence of football can be destructive to a normal, healthy body. And although the lean, muscular 6-foot, 165-pound McNeill looks like your average young adult, he is not. The 18-year-old has been fighting sickle cell disease since he was an infant.
The largely incurable genetic blood ailment renders red blood cells rigid and immobile, making it difficult to transport oxygen throughout the body. Periods of excruciating pain – called crises – can flare up when the body is physically taxed, which is why there are so few athletes with the condition.
Just don’t tell that to McNeill.
He made the football team as a sophomore at Emmaus (Pa.) HS before his family moved back to The Bronx during the school year and he enrolled at Lehman. Credit issues kept him from playing actual games that season and last. This year was supposed to be his first as a full-fledged player until a crisis – the worst he’s ever experienced – hit during preseason training camp in August.
“After awhile it started getting to be too much,” said McNeill, who takes penicillin every day for treatment. “Even when the pain was getting worse, I was trying to keep going. When it finally got to the level that I couldn’t take it, that’s when I went to coach [Michael Saunds].”
Saunds called for an ambulance as McNeill lost all feeling in his legs. When he got to the hospital, he was pumped with morphine, but the pain remained. Doctors upped the dosage, but it was too much for his bladder, which temporarily shut down. For a day McNeill couldn’t urinate without the help of a tube.
“It’s because I always go past my limit,” he said. “This is the second time they told me, ‘You gotta watch out. You gotta go with what your body says. If you catch a little pain, stay home.’ I really don’t listen to my doctors like that.”
The episode prevented him from taking the field to start the season. But because of McNeill’s commitment to the team, Saunds made him an assistant coach for wide receivers and defensive backs on the junior varsity.
“I want him to be the first thing these incoming freshmen see,” Saunds said. “That kid is what this program is all about.”
McNeill doesn’t want to coach in the future. He just wants to play – this season and in college, much to the chagrin of his mother, Sharon.
“I really didn’t want him to play at all, because I was so scared,” she said.
But Sharon won’t hold him back. He loves football too much and she doesn’t have the heart to tell him he can’t do it. McNeill has hemoglobin SC, a milder form of sickle cell, and before football he didn’t have a crisis for five years. Ironically, the very thing he cherishes causes him the most pain.
One of his doctors, Katherine Ender, an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center, said a bed-ridden McNeill asked her in August if there was a gym in the hospital so he could work out.
“He’s special,” Ender said. “”We’ve known very few patients with sickle cell disease who are as athletic as he is. … In his drive and commitment, he’s unique. I think he’s an excellent role model for children and adolescents with chronic diseases.”
McNeill made his debut yesterday against Flushing after being cleared by doctors two weeks ago. He didn’t play as much as he wanted, but caught a 17-yard pass and got in on a few tackles on special teams.
“I felt all that blood rushing to my head,” a strong and healthy McNeill said. “It felt good to be out there.”
He’s not at risk for any permanent damage and won’t feel any pain if he stays hydrated and doesn’t push too hard. Just don’t count too much on the latter.
“Jonathan is the reason why I coach,” Saunds said. “He’s just a success story. He perseveres through everything.”