Source: news-journal.com | Repost Duerson Fund 1/30/2023 –
Before the torn tendon in his groin that kept him out of the Eagles’ final two regular-season games. After he had suffered his third diagnosed concussion since entering the NFL in 2013. After he missed three games last season because of depression and other mental-health issues. After the injury to his ankle, one that led to surgery to repair his deltoid ligament and that caused him to miss 13 games in 2019 and 2020 and that left his leg looking as if a large man with bad intentions had taken a baseball bat to it. After an unknown number of strains and sprains and days when the darkness in his mind fell over him like a black wet blanket … and he took the field anyway.
In late October. At his locker inside the NovaCare Complex. Lane Johnson burned many of pro football’s myths to the ground.
Those myths hung thick last week and will again this week ahead of the Eagles’ matchup Sunday against the 49ers in the NFC championship game. Johnson put off surgery on his adductor — the muscle that stabilizes the pelvic area — and returned for the Eagles’ divisional-round game against the Giants, and was damn near perfect: He pass-blocked 26 times in that 38-7 victory without allowing a pressure, a quarterback hit, or a sack. “He’s a true warrior,” Jalen Hurts said. And Hurts was right. Johnson is a great right tackle, and he is playing, and excelling, through an incredible amount of physical pain and emotional pressure.