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Oregon TE Pharaoh Brown's rehab ahead of schedule following gruesome injury
Four months removed from a gruesome right leg injury that had doctors considering amputation, Oregon tight end Pharaoh Brown is remarkably ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation.
The 21-year-old Brown’s third leg surgery was just four weeks ago, and according to a great piece by Andrew Greif of The Oregonian, he is already able to walk gingerly without the help of crutches. He has also begun to ride a stationary bike and do light jogging on an underwater treadmill.
Not bad for a guy who left Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium on Nov. 8 in an ambulance with an injury that “stretched an artery in his leg,” included two torn knee ligaments and caused internal bleeding.
Before the injury, Brown caught 25 passes for 420 yards and six touchdowns as a junior. Now his football future is up in the air.
"People ask me am I going to play, am I going to redshirt," Brown told The Oregonian. "I mean, this is a career decision, so I want to make sure my stuff is fully healed, that I can do everything and not rush back. That's why I don't even look that long out. If I'm able to play, I'll play. If I'm not, I'm not. I'm not getting out there till I'm 100 percent healed and not only 100 percent healed but 100 percent in my mind that I'm healed.”
The injury occurred when Brown stepped on a teammate’s foot and stumbled after heading upfield from the line of scrimmage after the ball was snapped on a goal line play. As he stumbled forward, Brown extended his right leg to regain his balance but planted awkwardly and his leg buckled underneath his weight.
Though he didn’t break any bones, Brown said the stretched artery in his leg “cut off blood flow below his right shin,” leaving him in the intensive care unit at the University of Utah Hospital – where he remained for four days.
Brown had surgery in Utah to remedy the issue with his artery and then flew to Cleveland, his hometown. He was able to finish out the fall semester via online lessons and then spent most of January in Cleveland with his mother, who works as a hospital nurse.
He returned to Oregon following more surgeries and is rehabbing six days a week and three hours each day – mainly to strengthen the muscles “around his knee, calf and ankle.”
Brown decided not to take classes in the winter quarter in order to focus on his rehab, but he’ll be back in class in the spring thanks to the NCAA’s medical absence waiver.
"For medical reasons it was better for Pharaoh not to complete winter term," said Oregon chief compliance officer Jody Sykes. "(The waiver) allows us to apply credit, like phantom credits, that continue to keep him on track academically and he makes those up down the line. The situation is so rare and unique that we're happy to jump through the hoops to help him. He's still part of the family and the team."
Brown, who says he’s received upwards of 1,000 pieces of fan mail in addition to messages of support on social media, says he’s even surprised by the progress he’s made in a short time since the injury.
“I’m surprising myself,” Brown said. “You don’t really know what you can do till you get put through that. You really don’t know how strong you are.”
For more Oregon news, visit DuckSportsAuthority.com.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
