The following is excerpted from a story by Bill Haisten, a reporter for the Tulsa World:
In 2007, in the Heisman Park collection of monuments immediately east of OU’s Memorial Stadium, the Jason White statue was unveiled. During the ceremony, Jason White recalls, “the only thing that came to mind was the rehab. The struggle. It was emotional for me. Everyone saw the touchdown passes, but no one saw the rehab.”
What he achieved on two ruined knees was miraculous.
After having supplanted Nate Hybl as the starting quarterback, White sustained a turf injury on Oct. 27, 2001, during a 20-10 loss at Nebraska. It was a defeat that ended the defending national champion Sooners’ 20-game win streak, and it wasn’t determined until two weeks later that White would need surgery.
“I worked my (bleep) off to come back from the first one. Everyone told me that I’d come back stronger and that it was no big deal. I worked hard after that first one.”
White’s other knee exploded on Sept. 7, 2002, as he attempted to cut upfield against Alabama.
On neither of the injury plays was White touched by a defender.
“The second time around — the actual injury and the first two weeks after the injury — it was horrible,” White said last week.
“When I went down with the second one, it was a whole different attitude coming from the doctors. It was like,
‘Well, maybe you should just hang it up.’ I remember moping around and feeling sorry for myself. Very few people ever said I’d get a chance to play again. To be honest, I don’t remember anybody saying that.”
Instead of retiring from football and becoming a student-coach, White chose to attempt another comeback. Each day, there were two therapy sessions. When he wasn’t in therapy, his right leg was on ice. Pain was constant.
“Just walking around was miserable,” White remembers. “I had to look in the mirror and ask whether I had done everything possible. Let’s give it all I’ve got and see what happens.”
By March 2003, however, his spirit also was injured. Disheartened by having gotten minimal reps during spring practice, White says he decided to pull the plug on his career. He visited the office of then-Sooner offensive coordinator Chuck Long.
White recounts that exchange.
White: “I don’t think …”
Long: “No.”
White: “You don’t even know what I’m going to say.”
Long: “You’re going to say that you can’t do it anymore.”
White: “How do you know that?”
Long: “It’s all over your face. I see it at practice. When is our first game?”
White: “September.”
Long: “You’ll get your shot in fall practice. If your knee hurts that much now, then don’t practice.”
The 2003 Sooners actually opened their season on Aug. 30, as No. 1-ranked OU smoked North Texas 37-3. White passed for 248 yards and three touchdowns. By season’s end, he had a program-record total of 40 TD passes and more than 3,800 passing yards.
If Long hadn’t refused to let it happen, if Jason hadn’t won that minute with his help, he would have limped away from football in March 2003.
Less than nine months later, White was in New York as the recipient of the Heisman Trophy.
Impossible? Yes. But Jason did it. We can only imagine the number of minutes he had to win to get there.