Despite sad ending, Reed's comeback was inspiratio

[CyberBull]

Despite sad ending, Reed's comeback was inspirational

Monday, September 04, 2006

Maybe it was a tear, maybe a bead of sweat.

Whatever it was that rolled down J.R. Reed's face in the moments following the Eagles' 20-17 loss to the New York Jets Friday night, it was apropos.

For more than a month, Reed played his heart out in his comeback attempt from a career-threatening peroneal nerve injury, trying to win back his spot as a backup safety and kickoff return specialist.

Now, with the preseason over, the decision was completely out of his hands. Final cuts were coming in around 18 hours. He had done all he could do.

"It was a challenge," the proud player said. "They told me I couldn't do it. I did what I did. ... I just thank God I had the opportunity to get back, because I wasn't given a chance. But I'm back, as far as I know.

"If I get cut tomorrow, I get cut tomorrow. But I did what I could."

He did a whole lot more than that. Reed inspired a team, inspired a city.

He had everyone on his side almost from the moment he impaled his left leg on a fence he was trying to hurdle near his home in Tampa, Fla., less than a month after Super Bowl XXXIX.

Doctors told him to forget playing again. Reed never took their advice, although he did wisely complete work on his college degree last season, which was spent entirely on the non-football injured reserve list.

His spirited and often effective play with the help of a special brace that's been tweaked tens of dozens of times had been the most uplifting story of training camp.

Until the call came on a rainy and miserable Saturday afternoon.

Reed was out of work. The Eagles did not keep five safeties, as most people expected, choosing to load up instead on both lines.

"We're not down on J.R. at all," general manager Tom Heckert explained. "It was just a matter of, do we keep five safeties? It was going to be tough for us to do that. Even if you kept five, how do you keep all five of those active if J.R. was going to be the guy that's going to be the kick returner?

"So now, in the situation where we've only kept four, we think it opens up another spot for somebody else. We'll see what happens down the road, but we still think J.R. can play for us."

Reed on Friday night had that gallows look about him, and for good reason. He did not have a particularly good game, failing to get cleanly through a huge hole created by a textbook wedge on a third-quarter kickoff return and dropping an interception in the end zone that would have prevented three points in the fourth quarter.

Had he been a fraction of a second quicker, he might still be running. Heck, maybe there's still room for him with the Eagles or some other team in the near future, as Heckert clearly implied on Saturday.

But for now, Reed is unemployed.

For a young player who once showed so much promise as a rookie, it is a genuine tragedy.

Yet it would have been a whole lot worse had Reed limped away without trying.

Whether he makes it back or not, he brought to his teammates and to the city a message of indomitable human spirit, something that can never be broken by any NFL roster rules.

The feeling here is that we haven't seen or heard the last of J.R. Reed.

Nick Fierro covers the Eagles for the Express-Times of Easton, Pa.

http://www.nj.com/sports/sunbeam/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/115734303272410.xml&coll=9

[Minotaur]

What a great guy and this is a great story so I just had to bump it back to the top.