Sidelined Stories

There are times when the drive to continue to compete is so strong that an athlete can end up staying at it much longer than is probably best. That certainly was the case for Emily Allard who did everything humanly possible to avoid medical retirement. She hadn’t yet, after all, been able to fulfill her dreams of playing in the Olympics and anything short of that goal was unacceptable. At a certain point though, she had to face the fact that the concussion she sustained years earlier had caused such lingering effects that her athletic goals were no longer healthy or sustainable.

Emily shares how her long history of playing through injury, blocking out pain, and putting up a facade kept her from making the decision to medically retire for far too long and also impacted her ability to fully accept her new reality following retirement. Emily discusses what she’s learned over the past several years about the “athletic mentality” and the unhealthy thinking patterns that caused her to power through even when it wasn’t good for her.

This episode is chock-full of various aspects of medical retirement: navigating the decision to medically retire, challenges of a layered transition in retirement (working through both physical symptoms on top of the emotional/psychological), loss of relationships with the team, bottling up feelings, difficulty opening up, feeling lost, hitting rock bottom, seeking therapy, the decision to stay involved with your sport or to walk away completely . . .

We hope this episode is especially helpful to those athletes whose intense grittiness for sport has complicated their medical retirement and made them feel incomplete without the fulfillment of their dreams. You may feel like all is lost, but it isn’t. We hope you, like Emily, will be able to find a way to stop running into the brick wall that is “denial” and lean into acceptance in letting go of control of what you thought your life would look like and find fresh hopefulness for your future.

No doubt every athlete experiencing repeat injuries fears the possibility of the premature end of their athletic career. Enduring years of injury, re-injury, therapies, surgeries, and rehab can take a toll on an athlete, both physically and mentally. It’s always a potential reality that one day, it becomes clear that the comeback they’re looking for is just not going to happen. That day came for Jonathan Giles his sophomore year of junior college and would cost him the scholarship he had been offered to play at Georgetown.

In this interview, Jonathan shares openly about the struggles he experienced following medical retirement. Self-blame, resentment, changed relationships, unfulfilled dreams, the impact of bottling up his feelings, identity loss . . . were are all part of his journey.

Refusing at first to open up to others about how he was feeling, Jonathan discusses his experience of trying to manage his struggles on his own. Eventually, Jonathan would see a therapist who challenged him to work through his unhealthy thinking and find the motivation and drive to explore new passions. Don’t miss the top three things that Jonathan learned through therapy that would finally set him on the path to acceptance and a new passion for life! Hear how changing his mindset helped him unlock experiences he never thought he would have had.

Need help finding a sports psychologist or therapist?
Check out these online resources which helped Jonathan find a sports psychologist to work with:
Psychology Today
OnlineWebCounseling.com

The story of Brett Ball, a former basketball player for South Carolina who was forced to quit competition in college after being diagnosed with a heart condition. Brett opens up about her resistance to getting help from a sports psychologist, her anger with God, and the significance of finding other sidelined athletes to talk to.

The story of Devin Hedgepeth, a former football player who last played football for Oklahoma State. Devin was a projected first round draft pick for the NFL but was forced to walk away from football after one too many Achilles tears. Devin speaks of the heart break and identity loss of having to leave his sport and the resiliency he acquired in overcoming his new reality as a sidelined athlete.

It's been said that there's no testimony without a test. For NFL Player, Johnathan Franklin, that test was an unforgiving and brutal reality check that one play can destroy an athlete's career at any moment's notice. Listen to accomplished RB, Johnathan Franklin's testimony about the after-math of learning that no doctor would ever clear him to play again after a spinal contusion suffered in a game against the Minnesota Vikings his rookie year in the NFL. By all accounts, Johnathan appeared on the outside to be handling the situation in stride, pushing forward to new pursuits. Internally, what no one knew, was that his identity, his confidence - had been shattered with the loss of the dream he had worked his whole life to achieve. Johnathan opens up about his inward brokenness and confusion, despite the facade he displayed. In this interview, you'll be inspired to hear Johnathan's personal transformation as he learned to release the pain, accept it, and embrace a higher purpose behind it. Johnathan's deep faith helped him emerge from the ashes and find his worth in something more secure than his ability to compete on the football field. Now working with the LA Rams in Community Affairs and Engagement and as a selective game analyst for CBS-aired Rams games, Johnathan has turned his passion for football into a new career path and is living out bigger dreams in ways he never dreamt. A don't-miss interview that will leave you inspired to keep dreaming and reinventing yourself no matter what obstacles you encounter.