Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And we are thrilled the head out to the Kwai
Common Spirit Health hoighline and welcome him to our program, PJ.
You're on with Dave Logan, Ryan Eversus Susie Warten.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
How are you, sir? I'm good, I'm good. How are
you guys? Thank you for having me. Yeah, we appreciate
you coming on PJ for sure. So I guess first
and foremost, how you feeling physically. I'm getting there, man,
I'm getting there. I feel I feel really good. Though.
I will say all the pain that I was getting
(00:28):
with there in the season, I don't have that no more.
So thank God for that.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yeah, that's huge, PJ. You and I had a chance
to catch up at Panser Tans event a few weeks ago,
and you were kind of describing what happened. You were
in some pain during the season and you played through
a lot of pain. Describe like what happened, And I mean,
there's a lot of people that go through vertebrae and
next next surge, reason here you are and you're gonna
come back.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
And play after it. Yeah. Yeah. So really, so, like
everything kind of really started around ot as a little
bit normally, like I always had like a bit of
like a little bit of back pain, and I tried
to alleviate the pain a little bit by taking taking
(01:15):
like these quarter gram shots and did it. Did it
during OTAs and it kind of helped for a little bit,
and then right around training camp I took it again
and it literally like I don't know, it didn't it
didn't help at all. And it was like times during
training camp and I was just like, man, I do
not I do not feel like myself. I remember coming
(01:38):
home from one day in training camp. I think we
had like an off day, and I went in for
my closet and how my wife was looking for me
as in my basement closet, kind of just sitting there
like just trying to figure out what's going on, because
I'm like, man, I feel like this is supposed to
be like a breakout year for me. I just had
a new contract everything. It's kind of like being put
in the place. So I'm thinking like, yeah, this is this,
(02:00):
this is the breakthrough year right now. I've been through
a lot, you know, practice squad, undrafted, finally like having
my opportunity to start. I'm just like here it is.
And I was just like, man, I'm just I'm just
not feeling like me, Like I'm not I feel like
I'm not moving the same, not coming on my breaks
the same. Like it was just weird. And so yeah,
(02:21):
I mean she she gave me, my wife gave me
some few a few PEP talks, gave me some words
of encouragement, and it just kind of just kind of
kept me going. And we would say, like the middle
of the season, like the pain just got like even worse.
We tried to take another quartersone shot. We got like
a second opinion on why I wasn't working, and another
(02:43):
doctor had told us he was a doctor out of
LA He told us to take this shot, I believe
like above where the pain is and hopefully the medicine
will like drop down and kind of enter that area
where it's having I'm having that nerve pain and that
that number. And we did it and were waiting. They
(03:04):
always say it takes like three days to kick in,
and like literally I didn't feel anything. So at that point,
I was just like, you know what, I'm just gonna
I'm just gonna, you know, man up and just get
through the season. And yeah, and so like I would say,
probably like the third of the season, like I started
having like these weird quad pain. I had numbness in
(03:26):
the quad, but the quad was like I started like
losing strength. I would do I would do like workouts
during the season and specifically like leg extensions, and like
I could feel the difference in my quad, Like why
why is my quad becoming more weak? So I'm like
blaming myself And I was like, man, I did I
(03:46):
not do it nothing the off season? Did I not
you know, do the correct workouts or what is going on?
I cannot figure it out. And I think to myself again,
I'm just like night, it can't it can't be that.
But anyway, long story short, I started working out with
on our strength coaches, like early early in the morning,
like six o'clock in the morning before meetings, and like
(04:08):
we started pulling sledgs and stuff like that just to
like get me some type of comf Normally when I
pull sledge and stuff, that gives me my confidence, my closerveness,
my speed and everything and none of Like we did it.
One week we kind of set numbers and then the
next week my numbers like dropped, Like what is going on?
(04:29):
So me, long long story short, after the Bills game
on our trainers was like, yeah, I think it's a
good idea for us to get another m around on
your back, got the MRA and uh doctor doctor cha
Chad Presmack was like, Yo, you need to get surgery
right now. And I'm like like what about what about
(04:50):
my career? Like what about you know? Am I going
to come back? Like what I'm trying to do. Obviously,
when somebody said you're going to have surgery, you do
all the research. So I'm on YouTube, I'm on the internet,
I'm on TikTok trying to figure out like, hey, how
do how do people feel? How do people bounce back?
And like it was literally like no research on it,
(05:13):
especially for like how you know high level athletes. Sure,
And I'm like, man, I'm pulling pulling my hair out
of my head. I'm just like it is my my
career done? And I got I end up getting like
called my agent. I'm getting second, third, and fourth opens
and some doctors saying like, hey, it's gonna take nine
(05:34):
to twelve months, and I'm just like held off, like
I don't have nine to twelve months, Like this is
my contract here, Like I don't have that and you
know some other doctors that was optimistic, saying like you,
I think it might but the most of that eight
months and I'm just like that that just doesn't sound
you know, convincing to me. Uh And then I start
(05:56):
getting like apeens around some other teams and stuff like that,
and uh, you know, they were saying like if you
can play without it, please play without it. So I'm
at this point like I'm I'm thinking is over. And
obviously the doctor is going to tell you, well, the
longevity of were not the longevity, but the after life,
like after football, like your kids and stuff like that.
(06:16):
You want to be able to play with them and
all that stuff. So I kind of like just chop
it up too, like, man, if it's it's gonna be,
what it's gonna be. You know, like if I'm able
to play football, cool, I would love that. But you know,
obviously when they kind of start throwing in your kids
and you know, growing up with them, I'm like, okay, yeah,
that's that's a little bit more important. Right. So Yeah, So,
(06:41):
I mean I was I was super nervous end up
going ahead and getting the surgery, and I would say,
like the first first two weeks of it was like, man,
I think I made the wrong decision because I couldn't
I couldn't really move. I couldn't evenly get get myself
out of bed under my own strength. If I couldn't
get off the couch. If I'm just sitting upright, I
(07:03):
couldn't get off the couch if I dropped something on
the ground, like I'm telling my son, Hey, come get
this remote for me, or something like that. And then
I would say, around around three and a half weeks,
like stuff started to look a lot more, look a
lot better, And I think I had another appointment, probably
(07:26):
like a month out, and it was it was especially
just kind of telling me, like what what does the
protocols look like moving forward? And he was just saying, like, man,
about at about three and a half four months, we're
gonna have another appointment. It's gonna be a cas can
and we're gonna check the bone density if like the
bones are going between the screws, like I have screws
(07:48):
in my back out of a spacer, I actually grew
an inch, So we're gonna change that. The player profile,
change that the player profile. But yeah, and when that
time came, like everything kind of started checking out and
I had like this miraculous healing. We expected to be
(08:10):
like sixty healed. Uh when I when I say here,
we're talking about the bone growing through the screws, through
the space. We expected to be fifty to sixty percent.
My doctor said it would be. He would be ecstatic,
y'all if I was there and I got to about
three months and we took another cask in, he was like, yeah,
(08:33):
you have bone going through it, behind it everything, so
he wow, hundred percent healed. Oh wow. They were completely
completely shocked. That's incredible. And I would tell you the
rest of the store. Honestly, the rest of the story
would be the rest of story of you on my
YouTube and.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah, you got you got a big story going on
with YouTube.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
So if Freddy can kind of follow your your rehabit,
everything you're doing and they fused your your fourth and
fifth vertebrand to be able to come back from that,
PJ is just it's pretty incredible. We're we're really excited
to see what you do in training camp.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
How how much do you think you'll be able to
tell me? Again, you're this is significant and obviously here
have thoughts with you and just recovery. But are you
hoping to be able to do some stuff here in
training camp? I mean, how how are you sitting with that?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, that's that's the that's the play. I don't know
how long they're gonna hold me out or if I'll
be clear for day one, but I have a doctors
appointment actually coming up like next week, and that's that's
gonna tell me a lot of stuff moving forward. But honestly,
just you know, just hoping to be like super healthy.
And I think this whole process has been not just
(09:45):
sort of a blessing and a miracle from God. And yeah, man,
I think I think that was a breakthrough I was
looking for, honestly, just not knowing because it got to
the point and I'm kind of speaking a lot right
now and I'm kind of going back, and I just
remember that me getting the surgery, what dictated me getting
the surgery? He was saying that from three years ago
(10:08):
when we got the MRIs, like, man, why is my
back hurting? It kind of came down to like the
structure of my body, how it was born, how it
was to do it. I had like a natural curve
and kind of like the upper back a little bit.
If you kind of look at me sideways, I had
like a from my lumbar spine. It was straight and
then it kind of curve. I used to get joked
(10:29):
on people said, like a turtle shell. But yeah, but anyway,
it was just a structure. So like the wanter playing
football my years and lifting weights or squad and stuff
like that, it was just a matter of time. But
I remember three years ago they was like, yeah, I
like you don't have any nerve pain anything like that,
(10:51):
or it doesn't really affect you, then you're fine, Like
you just get whatever done after football and you'd be fine.
He says, it's very common wall this past year. It's
just out of nowhere. It just I had like super
super bad nerve pains, had backstadings and all that. But
he was saying, like I had like a shift parts
of defect, which is like a fracture in like the
(11:13):
L four vertebrae, and it caused my spine and shift forward.
So that shift forward kind of blocked the nerve canal.
That's why I had all this nerve pain and like
numbness and gone down. Yep.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, yeah, well I apologize, man. We do have to run.
But listen, man, I'm glad to hear you're doing a
little better.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
You said.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
People can follow along on your YouTube on what's going
on with it.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yes, yes, yes, it'll be on my YouTube page and
that'll be like just to follow up with everything.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
So inspiration that have the back surgery for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic. Well hey listen man, we're we're
happy to hear your voice. Looking forward to seeing you
out there in the practice field. And again I you know,
all the best to you and your family. Man, I
appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Yeah. J A.
Lock
And we are thrilled the head out to the Kwai
Common Spirit Health hoighline and welcome him to our program, PJ.
You're on with Dave Logan, Ryan Eversus Susie Warten.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
How are you, sir? I'm good, I'm good. How are
you guys? Thank you for having me. Yeah, we appreciate
you coming on PJ for sure. So I guess first
and foremost, how you feeling physically. I'm getting there, man,
I'm getting there. I feel I feel really good. Though.
I will say all the pain that I was getting
(00:28):
with there in the season, I don't have that no more.
So thank God for that.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yeah, that's huge, PJ. You and I had a chance
to catch up at Panser Tans event a few weeks ago,
and you were kind of describing what happened. You were
in some pain during the season and you played through
a lot of pain. Describe like what happened, And I mean,
there's a lot of people that go through vertebrae and
next next surge, reason here you are and you're gonna
come back.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
And play after it. Yeah. Yeah. So really, so, like
everything kind of really started around ot as a little
bit normally, like I always had like a bit of
like a little bit of back pain, and I tried
to alleviate the pain a little bit by taking taking
(01:15):
like these quarter gram shots and did it. Did it
during OTAs and it kind of helped for a little bit,
and then right around training camp I took it again
and it literally like I don't know, it didn't it
didn't help at all. And it was like times during
training camp and I was just like, man, I do
not I do not feel like myself. I remember coming
(01:38):
home from one day in training camp. I think we
had like an off day, and I went in for
my closet and how my wife was looking for me
as in my basement closet, kind of just sitting there
like just trying to figure out what's going on, because
I'm like, man, I feel like this is supposed to
be like a breakout year for me. I just had
a new contract everything. It's kind of like being put
in the place. So I'm thinking like, yeah, this is this,
(02:00):
this is the breakthrough year right now. I've been through
a lot, you know, practice squad, undrafted, finally like having
my opportunity to start. I'm just like here it is.
And I was just like, man, I'm just I'm just
not feeling like me, Like I'm not I feel like
I'm not moving the same, not coming on my breaks
the same. Like it was just weird. And so yeah,
(02:21):
I mean she she gave me, my wife gave me
some few a few PEP talks, gave me some words
of encouragement, and it just kind of just kind of
kept me going. And we would say, like the middle
of the season, like the pain just got like even worse.
We tried to take another quartersone shot. We got like
a second opinion on why I wasn't working, and another
(02:43):
doctor had told us he was a doctor out of
LA He told us to take this shot, I believe
like above where the pain is and hopefully the medicine
will like drop down and kind of enter that area
where it's having I'm having that nerve pain and that
that number. And we did it and were waiting. They
(03:04):
always say it takes like three days to kick in,
and like literally I didn't feel anything. So at that point,
I was just like, you know what, I'm just gonna
I'm just gonna, you know, man up and just get
through the season. And yeah, and so like I would say,
probably like the third of the season, like I started
having like these weird quad pain. I had numbness in
(03:26):
the quad, but the quad was like I started like
losing strength. I would do I would do like workouts
during the season and specifically like leg extensions, and like
I could feel the difference in my quad, Like why
why is my quad becoming more weak? So I'm like
blaming myself And I was like, man, I did I
(03:46):
not do it nothing the off season? Did I not
you know, do the correct workouts or what is going on?
I cannot figure it out. And I think to myself again,
I'm just like night, it can't it can't be that.
But anyway, long story short, I started working out with
on our strength coaches, like early early in the morning,
like six o'clock in the morning before meetings, and like
(04:08):
we started pulling sledgs and stuff like that just to
like get me some type of comf Normally when I
pull sledge and stuff, that gives me my confidence, my closerveness,
my speed and everything and none of Like we did it.
One week we kind of set numbers and then the
next week my numbers like dropped, Like what is going on?
(04:29):
So me, long long story short, after the Bills game
on our trainers was like, yeah, I think it's a
good idea for us to get another m around on
your back, got the MRA and uh doctor doctor cha
Chad Presmack was like, Yo, you need to get surgery
right now. And I'm like like what about what about
(04:50):
my career? Like what about you know? Am I going
to come back? Like what I'm trying to do. Obviously,
when somebody said you're going to have surgery, you do
all the research. So I'm on YouTube, I'm on the internet,
I'm on TikTok trying to figure out like, hey, how
do how do people feel? How do people bounce back?
And like it was literally like no research on it,
(05:13):
especially for like how you know high level athletes. Sure,
And I'm like, man, I'm pulling pulling my hair out
of my head. I'm just like it is my my
career done? And I got I end up getting like
called my agent. I'm getting second, third, and fourth opens
and some doctors saying like, hey, it's gonna take nine
(05:34):
to twelve months, and I'm just like held off, like
I don't have nine to twelve months, Like this is
my contract here, Like I don't have that and you
know some other doctors that was optimistic, saying like you,
I think it might but the most of that eight
months and I'm just like that that just doesn't sound
you know, convincing to me. Uh And then I start
(05:56):
getting like apeens around some other teams and stuff like that,
and uh, you know, they were saying like if you
can play without it, please play without it. So I'm
at this point like I'm I'm thinking is over. And
obviously the doctor is going to tell you, well, the
longevity of were not the longevity, but the after life,
like after football, like your kids and stuff like that.
(06:16):
You want to be able to play with them and
all that stuff. So I kind of like just chop
it up too, like, man, if it's it's gonna be,
what it's gonna be. You know, like if I'm able
to play football, cool, I would love that. But you know,
obviously when they kind of start throwing in your kids
and you know, growing up with them, I'm like, okay, yeah,
that's that's a little bit more important. Right. So Yeah, So,
(06:41):
I mean I was I was super nervous end up
going ahead and getting the surgery, and I would say,
like the first first two weeks of it was like, man,
I think I made the wrong decision because I couldn't
I couldn't really move. I couldn't evenly get get myself
out of bed under my own strength. If I couldn't
get off the couch. If I'm just sitting upright, I
(07:03):
couldn't get off the couch if I dropped something on
the ground, like I'm telling my son, Hey, come get
this remote for me, or something like that. And then
I would say, around around three and a half weeks,
like stuff started to look a lot more, look a
lot better, And I think I had another appointment, probably
(07:26):
like a month out, and it was it was especially
just kind of telling me, like what what does the
protocols look like moving forward? And he was just saying, like, man,
about at about three and a half four months, we're
gonna have another appointment. It's gonna be a cas can
and we're gonna check the bone density if like the
bones are going between the screws, like I have screws
(07:48):
in my back out of a spacer, I actually grew
an inch, So we're gonna change that. The player profile,
change that the player profile. But yeah, and when that
time came, like everything kind of started checking out and
I had like this miraculous healing. We expected to be
(08:10):
like sixty healed. Uh when I when I say here,
we're talking about the bone growing through the screws, through
the space. We expected to be fifty to sixty percent.
My doctor said it would be. He would be ecstatic,
y'all if I was there and I got to about
three months and we took another cask in, he was like, yeah,
(08:33):
you have bone going through it, behind it everything, so
he wow, hundred percent healed. Oh wow. They were completely
completely shocked. That's incredible. And I would tell you the
rest of the store. Honestly, the rest of the story
would be the rest of story of you on my
YouTube and.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah, you got you got a big story going on
with YouTube.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
So if Freddy can kind of follow your your rehabit,
everything you're doing and they fused your your fourth and
fifth vertebrand to be able to come back from that,
PJ is just it's pretty incredible. We're we're really excited
to see what you do in training camp.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
How how much do you think you'll be able to
tell me? Again, you're this is significant and obviously here
have thoughts with you and just recovery. But are you
hoping to be able to do some stuff here in
training camp? I mean, how how are you sitting with that?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, that's that's the that's the play. I don't know
how long they're gonna hold me out or if I'll
be clear for day one, but I have a doctors
appointment actually coming up like next week, and that's that's
gonna tell me a lot of stuff moving forward. But honestly,
just you know, just hoping to be like super healthy.
And I think this whole process has been not just
(09:45):
sort of a blessing and a miracle from God. And yeah, man,
I think I think that was a breakthrough I was
looking for, honestly, just not knowing because it got to
the point and I'm kind of speaking a lot right
now and I'm kind of going back, and I just
remember that me getting the surgery, what dictated me getting
the surgery? He was saying that from three years ago
(10:08):
when we got the MRIs, like, man, why is my
back hurting? It kind of came down to like the
structure of my body, how it was born, how it
was to do it. I had like a natural curve
and kind of like the upper back a little bit.
If you kind of look at me sideways, I had
like a from my lumbar spine. It was straight and
then it kind of curve. I used to get joked
(10:29):
on people said, like a turtle shell. But yeah, but anyway,
it was just a structure. So like the wanter playing
football my years and lifting weights or squad and stuff
like that, it was just a matter of time. But
I remember three years ago they was like, yeah, I
like you don't have any nerve pain anything like that,
(10:51):
or it doesn't really affect you, then you're fine, Like
you just get whatever done after football and you'd be fine.
He says, it's very common wall this past year. It's
just out of nowhere. It just I had like super
super bad nerve pains, had backstadings and all that. But
he was saying, like I had like a shift parts
of defect, which is like a fracture in like the
(11:13):
L four vertebrae, and it caused my spine and shift forward.
So that shift forward kind of blocked the nerve canal.
That's why I had all this nerve pain and like
numbness and gone down. Yep.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, yeah, well I apologize, man. We do have to run.
But listen, man, I'm glad to hear you're doing a
little better.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
You said.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
People can follow along on your YouTube on what's going
on with it.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yes, yes, yes, it'll be on my YouTube page and
that'll be like just to follow up with everything.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
So inspiration that have the back surgery for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic. Well hey listen man, we're we're
happy to hear your voice. Looking forward to seeing you
out there in the practice field. And again I you know,
all the best to you and your family. Man, I
appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Yeah. J A.
Lock
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