Adam Loewy is one of the top personal injury lawyers in Austin. Adam is a proud graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and started his law firm in 2005. Adam helps people who have been injured in car crashes, slip and falls, dog bites, and other assorted ways. He is actively involved in every case he handles and is always available to talk or text. If you or a loved one has been injured, call the Loewy Law Firm today at (512) 280-0800.
Nobody would have blamed Jordan Whittington for believing his football journey was over.
Whittington was a standout player at Cuero High School. He compiled over 3,000 receiving yards, 5,400 all-purpose yards, and 60 total touchdowns in three-plus seasons. The standout athlete set a Texas high school championship game record with 334 yards rushing on 28 carries, breaking the previous mark set by former Longhorn RB Jonathan Gray, while also breaking Eric Dickerson’s 4A record. Whittington tied the championship game record with five rushing touchdowns while compiling 43 receiving yards with one touchdown and eight total tackles. He was named the Offensive and Defensive Most Valuable Player during his team’s victory against Pleasant Grove.
There was no way Whittington could anticipate the multiple medical setbacks he would endure after his biggest football moment.
Injury after injury. Surgery after surgery. Rehab after rehab. One unlucky break after another.
Whittington could have given up.
He didn’t.
“I think just because of the roll the dice factor. The what if?” Whittington said. “You could give up. If you give up, you know it's a no. But what if this is the time that God blesses me to actually go all the way? That’s kind of how I view it. And just how I was raised, I don't really start stuff that I don’t finish.”
It’s an incredible perspective from a young man who overcame multiple challenges to participate in spring football this year.
- In 2019, Whittington caught two passes for 17 yards against Louisiana Tech in the season opener before re-aggravating a groin injury from high school. Whittington, who was a running back as a freshman, underwent surgery and was later cleared to return midway through that season. However, he continued to experience pain and soreness from the injury and never played.
- Whittington also needed surgery to repair a sports hernia injury he sustained in high school. That surgery occurred in December 2019.
- In 2020, Whittington played in the season-opener against UTEP before sustaining a small tear of his lateral meniscus, which required surgery.
- Whittington returned to the starting lineup versus Oklahoma and caught a career-high 10 passes for 65 yards. However, he missed the next three games due to a strained hip flexor.
- Last season, Whittington was productive before sustaining a broken clavicle against Oklahoma. Whittington caught five passes for 93 yards and a touchdown versus Texas Tech, three passes for 79 yards and a touchdown at TCU, and three receptions for 35 yards before the injury against the Sooners. Whittington missed the next four games before returning to face West Virginia.
“I think it's healthy to have balance in your offense,” Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian said earlier this year. “I look back even to going into the OU game, Jordan Whittington was having a heck of a season for us. He was a really critical component for us on third-down. The guy extended drives. He was great in the slot. I thought when we lost Jordan, that hurt as well.”
Whittington’s evolution is evident.
During a recent interview with OB’s @Serenity Douglas, Whittington outlined the steps he has implemented to stay healthy.
“I'll wake up at four in the morning and go get in the hot tub and go warm up in a hot tub,” Whittington told Douglas. “After that, I do a series of stretches. I do the same ones every day with one of the trainers. After that, I get on the field early, make sure I'm totally warm, then we warm up again. So, now my body's ready to go. After that, I make sure that I go into the cold tub and the hot tub, just go back and forth for a while. I'll go eat. I figured out the cure to a lot of pains is fruit, so I eat three big bowls of fruit every day. The cure for me, my body, what helps me not feel all of the inflammation is fruit. It helps. I don't know how. I'm not into the scientific stuff but I eat three bowls of fruit every day.
“After that, I'll go back to the training room, do those same stretches that I did at four in the morning. Do those again, do a little massage gun thing, and maybe get back into the cold tub. I’m probably in there from 11 to 3, just doing stuff for my body. I don't put bad stuff in my body. I don't really eat fast food during these times. Every Saturday, I eat a pint of ice cream because (of) all the hard work and dedication and perseverance that I put myself through. I don’t really eat fast food. I don't put a lot of bad things in my body. Other than that, I feel good.”
Sarkisian is feeling good, too.
Whittington has compiled 600 receiving yards and three touchdowns during 13 games at Texas.
However, Sarkisian is optimistic that Whittington can add another dimension to the Longhorn offense this season.
“Getting J-Whitt back healthy, adding Jahleel [Billingsly], adding [Isaiah] Neyor to go along with Xavier [Worthy],” Sarkisian said. “Then knowing what we have now in the backfield, really with what Bijan [Robinson] brings, we know that but then we saw what Roschon Johnson is capable of, and then there's always the wildcard of Keilan [Robinson] because Keilan is such a versatile guy. I think now, we're getting ourselves some balance here in where we want to go offensively, where you can't just hone in on one or two guys.”
Whittington has honed in staying healthy and having a successful senior season (he will take one class in the fall and graduate in December).
During a recent media interview, Whittington was asked what advice he would tell his younger self with the knowledge he currently has.
“The first thing I would tell him is to take care of your body,” Sarkisian said. “You come out of high school young and you feel great. When you're young, you can go to practice, go home, go to sleep, come back and you'll feel the same. When you get older and you go through like what I went through, you have to make a conscious effort to take care of your body. The first thing I would say. Take care of your body even when it feels good … And just stay happy.
“Make sure your mental health is good. Just stay happy. You always got the decision to be happy or not. So always choose to be happy.”
Whittington could have given up.
He didn’t.
Photo via UT
Funniest Things You Will See This Week
You knew SNL would have jokes about Will Smith
This is for all the Encanto fans
Angus Cloud after a gummy from Rogue Apothecary
This is for all the parents of daughters
Are parenting classes available? (bad language alert)
Sports On A Dime
1. Texas running back Bijan Robinson’s response when asked what motivated him to play this season and not save his body for the NFL draft: “I just see so much growth in the team. I feel we have such a great team. A lot of guys came back. We have a lot of new guys that are just our big-play type of guys. I feel like me coming back and just me being a part of this team, especially this offense, I just knew I needed to be here because I think that we can do so many special things this year. Obviously, the change is already happening. This spring has been better than everything from last year. So, I know we have a lot going on for us and I want to be a part of it.”
2. Robinson on the personality of Quinn Ewers: “He’s just really mellow, very quiet in the locker room. He's happy-go-lucky with all of us. He's right across from me and we talk all the time about everything. Just our energy. Even in the morning, he's always happy. I'm happy with him. He's a good kid. When he gets comfortable, he’ll really show what we can do.”
3. Texas defensive tackle Keondre Coburn on what the interior linemen did well last year and areas they can improve this spring: “I think interior d-line, I think we did a good job of striking, trying to get off blocks really good. I think what we are working on this spring and now is getting when it's a block to a pass. Reacting to a pass really fast, getting off blocks. Reading a run better to where I got my man, I can read right or left, and executing better than we did last year. I mean we did some good things, but also we did some bad things. I think what's good is working on the good things right now and executing those to where we start with those and then work on it. That's what's good about having the same d-line coach, same defensive playbook, to where it's no more learning. It is learning in a way but it's not learning the playbook. Work on your technique and get better as a defensive line.”
4. Coburn on the need for this defensive line to be more aggressive: “I think it's very important. If you're not, what’s the point in you playing d-line. I think our job is to attach offensive linemen, getting them off a point to where we could corrupt their plays, getting in their backfield, messing up their playbook and mess up their plays. I think we really been working on with the past four or five days, four practices that we have, striking more, getting low, and using our strengths to the best of our ability. That’s what we did in the offseason. We got stronger with our arms and stuff like that to where we could strike and get off the ball consistently. That’s what we’re working on.”
5. I had a great conversation with @Serenity Douglas about football players running track and she was very insightful. We discussed Rueben Owens II, Brenen Thompson, and Johntay Cook II. It is worth checking out if you missed it.
6. Good luck, Joanne Allen-Taylor.
7. Some jokes write themselves.
8. This was a fascinating scenario that I thought we could have fun with on Sunday. I do not expect everyone to agree, which is the purpose of a fun sports debate.
Here are my selections:
Start: Shaquille O’Neal
Bench: Tim Duncan
Cut: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
I am not willing to die on a hill for any player, which means keep your insults to a minimum (yes, I know OB).
9. When this video came across my Twitter timeline this week, I instantly thought of @caldonna . I miss our endless conversations about boxing. I miss seeing his posts about wrestling. I just miss him.
RIP, Eduardo Calixto Gonzales.
10. As if we needed another reason to enjoy F1 racing. Do I need to take the lead on organizing an OB road trip to Las Vegas next year?
Proud Dad Alert
I filed this column early because my son is participating in his first AAU tournament and has a game at 8 a.m. on Sunday. He was fortunate to become the only third-grader selected to the fourth-grade team. I look forward to watching him come off the bench this year, learning, and more importantly, having fun.
Forgive me in advance if I do not respond to your comments until Sunday afternoon.
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