Very recently, the sports world heard the heart-wrenching news that Marcus Lattimore’s injuries would keep him from ever stepping onto an NFL field as a player. Instead of that path, he has decided to return to USC to finish up his public health degree.
The former USC running back, who broke numerous school records as a college athlete including most touchdowns, was faced with a choice no one wants to think about: what happens after?
What happens after a writer develops a debilitating stroke and can barely summon the energy to pick up a pen? What happens after a guitar legend loses a hand in a freak accident? What happens after a master painter goes blind?
For Lattimore, “what happens after” means making the choice he thinks is best for him: coming back to USC as a student to finish his degree.
This decision must have been very difficult. The pain of physical therapy is already beyond what most of us could conceive. Lattimore himself went through this process for two years before deciding that he would never get to the point where he could play football professionally.
After putting so much work into one option, he felt forced to leave his dream of football behind.
Nevertheless, we’re glad he’s coming back to school to finish his education. To those students who were able to see him play in college football, Lattimore is a figure almost as beloved as Steve Spurrier. His status as a celebrity is hard to overstate.
Now that he's coming back as a full-time student instead of a student-athlete, he'll have the time to pursue avenues at USC that were unavailable to him as a football player. He is acutely conscious that he's coming back as someone with influence and plans to use those to “provide opportunities and platforms to benefit youth sports programs in the state of South Carolina.”
Home is where one goes to recover from loss. The least we can do is welcome him home.