BACK AT IT: After tearing his ACL in 2011 (above left), and re-injuring it in training camp last year, Terrell Thomas is looking forward to making an impact this season. (
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He is an inspiration to his teammates and coaches, to young boys who dream the NFL dream just as he did, to anyone of any age who clings desperately to the belief that perseverance and faith and an iron will can help you overcome.
Terrell Thomas is The Comeback Kid, a Giant who grows in stature with each passing day, with each cut he makes on the practice field, waging a third improbable comeback from a second improbable comeback from ACL surgery one year earlier on his right knee.
You wonder: what kept him going?
“Just the motivation of overcoming injuries… a lot of people doubted me,” Thomas said. “And just a lot of people watching me at the same time, having a young daughter (Tatum, 3 1/2) and her not understanding why her dad can’t run, why her dad can’t pick her up ‘cause I’m on crutches, I wanted to have that teaching lesson later in life that your dad overcame those, and it’ll make her a stronger person to see now her dad can run, oh now her dad’s playing football again ’cause she couldn’t understand it all.”
For a while there, neither could he. Because The Comeback Kid has been to hell and back, the cruel football gods sabotaging his return to Big Blue with a fluke accident that cost him a financial windfall and threatened to end what appeared certain to be a promising career and left him devastated and depressed.
Asking, “Why Me?”
“I was in depression for a good 3-4 months,” Thomas told The Post.
“It was bad. I didn’t want to be positive, I didn’t want to hear anything positive. Tearing your ACL back-to-back, not knowing what’s next, and that’s the hardest part. The NFL is Not For Long. You have a moment in time where you could reach a big contract, and as an athlete, we don’t get taken care of in this league, so you got to hit it when the time is right, and I knew I missed that, so it was hard to deal with. And more importantly, I didn’t know what was next. I didn’t know if the Giants wanted me back, I didn’t know if another team wanted me back.”
He never doubted that he could make it back. But he needed support and guidance.
“My mom kept praying with me every day,” Thomas said. “She said, ‘You know son, you just got to take it day by day.’ And I think that was the turning point.”
He listened to advice from retired Giants running back Charles Way, the Giants director of player development.
“I talked to my pastors and other people,” Thomas said. “You need insight. You need for somebody to tell you that you’re not going crazy, what you feel is real and it’s how you overcome it. Because depression is real … before, it was kind of like, ‘I’m mad ’cause I got injured.’ I didn’t know what was wrong with me.”
He didn’t want Tatum to see him in this state.
“I would rehab in the morning, my cousin would drive me to the city [Hospital for Special Surgery] and I would come home and just either lay in my bed, go to sleep, watch a movie, or just get through the day,” Thomas said.
“I went to Pensacola [Fla.] to get away from everything and everybody. I was out there by myself to clear my mind. It was the best thing I could have ever done.”
Panthers outside linebacker Thomas Davis is the pioneer, three ACL surgeries later, and still going strong.
“He changed the game, and I’m going to follow suit right behind him, and we kind of motivate each other through that,” Thomas said. “Not for ourself, not for the doubters, but more for the fans and people who go through daily life that use our stories as inspiration: ‘Look how strong he is, look how humble he is. Look how every day he wakes up happy to go to rehab,’ and here comes this person complaining going to work.”
The Comeback Kid, 28 now, is hopeful he can play cornerback again Sunday night against the Colts. He has held his own against Victor Cruz in practice.
“Each and every day I feel myself a lot more confident,” Thomas said. “Mentally I’m not thinking about it and that’s the biggest thing for me.”
Every day he wakes up without swelling in the knee is a victory. A knee that required a first ACL surgery while at USC.
“My goal here was to come and redefine myself as a football player,” Thomas said. “A lot of knocks on me was one, injury; two, no top-end speed; and three, I couldn’t tackle. I proved the injuries wrong, proved the top-end speed, I haven’t really got beat over the top, and that I was a physical corner. Everything was going according to the plan.”
Until the plan changed dramatically.
“For me to finally get out there and make a couple of plays here and there I think is very exciting for the team — if he can overcome this, we can do anything,” Thomas said.
But what if the comeback is
ultimately thwarted?
“I learned that last year, that you have to be prepared for the moment, and that’s what I am,” Thomas said. “I’m preparing to play this year, and if it’s not meant to be, then that’s just not the plan God has for me. I have a college degree, I’m very smart, I’m not going to let this break me.”
The Comeback Kid will keep coming back.
steve.serby@nypost.com