Jameel McClain didn’t need to witness the end of David Wilson’s NFL career to understand that your boyhood dream can end at any time.
McClain, then with the Ravens, suffered a terrifying spinal contusion making a tackle on Redskins running back Alfred Morris during Week 14 of the 2012 season and was forced to confront his own mortality.
“The situation was so real to me, what he went through, all I could think about was how he was feeling, and how he was reacting through it, because it was something I had to confront as soon as I first met my first doctor, and he told me I was never going to play again,” McClain said. “It was something I had to look at, and to be in his position, it’s not an easy position, he’s a young man with a lot of talent, so for me it hit in a way more personal place than probably it did for a lot of people.”
McClain, now the Giants inside linebacker, couldn’t play in the Ravens’ Super Bowl victory over the 49ers. He couldn’t play until last October.
“It was a scary situation the more I grasped the concept of what happened,” he said. “But during the act, I don’t scare much. It wasn’t something that was just, ‘Oh man, I can’t believe it happened.’ I knew once I hit the person, I had the numbness, and then as time went on, I could feel my legs, so I was like, ‘All right, I’m not paralyzed, so that’s good.’ ”
McClain feared the end of his career, at age 27.
“Of course, you fear a million things,” he said. “You see a lot of things. You see possibility, just like you see the lack of possibility. But unfortunately, I was forced to confront more of the negative side than a positive in the beginning side of it.”
McClain was able to walk off the field that day. But the numbness became a nagging companion. But there was no apprehension when he was ready to return.
“I went into the week of practice like consciously trying to hit everybody, consciously trying to test myself to the max,” McClain said. “If I was going to get hurt, I was going to get hurt in practice. And once I passed the practice test, the game just became natural.”
McClain, born with spinal stenosis, has been fortunate enough not to endure a burner since.
“Sometimes God has a plan in a million ways, as [Wilson] said in his statement,” McClain said. “Mine was just something that needed to heal in time, and it was possible it could heal, and it was possible that it couldn’t, so I had to live with that. It was completely different than if I had surgery, and then I would know I had a certain timetable.
“Mine was stretched out for such a long time because we just didn’t know. All we could do is just sit back, take another picture in three weeks, take another picture in three weeks, take another picture in three weeks, so it was like drawing blood from me slowly but surely.”
He was asked what the biggest lesson is to take out of the Wilson situation.
“That’s a good question,” McClain said, “because I think he teaches people a lot of things. I think he teaches people to prepare, for the inevitable. I think he teaches people how to face adversity in the front of a big audience, and how to handle yourself. He definitely teaches some positivity the way he handled the situation. He took his lumps like a man, and now he’s making his next decisions in life. He teaches a lot.
“We all break, and at some point when we break, we might not come back. But fortunately for him, he bounced back regardless, the way he handled the situation.
“Phenomenal guy, man. If you print anything, keep saying that I said, ‘phenomenal.’ Because I was faced with that situation, and he handled it like amazing.”