Fat Pad Impingement

Fat Pad Impingement by Jonnie

So let's start from the beginning: I was playing midfielder in soccer and not loving it. I was working so hard and wasn't getting any better. I had just gotten into a new club and was not having a good time. I was the target for a lot of bullying and it made me wanna quit soccer. There was this one kid named Frankie, he was probably 4 foot 8. He had a round face and a serious attitude. He sparked a lot of hate towards me, and I could only take so much. So I quit before our first game.

Soccer had been my passion since I was two years old, and I had wanted to be just like my hero, Cristiano Ronaldo (Rob Gronkowski is my hero now). I wasn’t always very motivated to play soccer, but I thought I needed to have a sport, so it was my thing. I was never very good at soccer, but I thought I worked pretty hard, and my goal was to be the best in the world. Until I decided to give it up.

One day my grandparents visited from Maryland, and my grandpa said “Jonnie, look at this!” It was Lamar Jackson's passing highlights, I saw one of him passing to Mark Andrews. The catches and plays were so spectacular.I knew I wanted to do that. Then, I started to train. 

At first I started training by only running routes, but then I started to get into other parts of the game like footwork and lifting. I have a coach who lives across the street, and he's the one who helped me lift. Once a week I would go over to his garage and lift weights until he felt good enough that I could do it alone.

This gave me a big advantage on the field, during practice because I was stronger than most kids. I had also gotten good at catching and running clean routes. I was doing well enough that I started getting recognition for my athleticism, like coaches in Maryland asking me to play for them and even being invited to play at the Dallas Cowboys stadium. 

I was in Maryland for a trip, and there was this famous camp called O-D, and my grandparents decided that I should go check it out. After watching the practice, we were talking to the coach, and he said that I should do the two-day camp that was a continuation of the 5 day sleep-away camp. After a lot of rushing around to get pads on short notice, I was able to go. I was the only new kid, all the other kids had been there five days and I got one of the 8 awards. The award meant I got to play in Dallas for four days at the Cowboys stadium. 

About a week later my dad asked, “Wanna run routes? ” 

Obviously, I said, “Yes.”We went out to the field and started to warm up. I said, “You ready?”  

My dad said, “Yeah.” 

The first few runs were good; and I hadn't dropped any passes yet, but after a little while I felt a pop in my left knee cap. I didn't pay it any mind though because joints pop all the time. Once I lined up for my next route, I felt a sharp pain in my knee. I said, “Ow!” But I still ran the route. By mid-route, the pain hit me, I caught it and immediately fell. I couldn't walk on it, so we decided to go home. 

Two weeks later it was still hurting so my dad said, “Let's go see a sports med doc.”

We went to see the doctor, and first she said I twisted my MCL, but after another two weeks of pain, we went back, and she said, “You have fat pad impingement,” which basically means the thing in between my kneecap and the bone is inflamed. It took me about eight to ten weeks to recover from that, and the week I had recovered, one of my friends gave me a concussion which was another week.

Once I had recovered from my concussion, I had a flag football game. We were playing Landon’s team (which had a 3-0 record), and we were already underdogs because our record was 0-1-1. The first week I caught a full-field touchdown to tie the game, and end it. But that was against a not very good team, and this was in week three against a more accomplished team. It took us a while to find our groove, but once we did, we lit it up. We still lost, but by much less than we had thought. The first momentum starter was a touchdown. I had a long post route up the middle of the field and had been getting free every play with a little stutter-step. I told the quarter back, and he listened because he threw a perfect bomb to me for the touchdown. Next, we were playing defense and it was fourth down. I was rushing the quarterback and may or may not have hit his hand accidentally to make him throw a pick 6. We still lost. But we came back from a 0-18 deficit and lost 18-28.

I love football a ton; I love the hard hits and catching a touchdown, and I love getting hit and falling. I love everything about it. It's important to me because of everything it has to offer. From all the leagues, to all the hits and tackles. It has also taught me that I love to hit and get hit and to block and catch.