It seems like Julian Edelman is going to try and extend his decorated NFL career by at least another season. But it wasn't too long ago that the rest of his playing days flashed before his eyes.
Certainly over the hill of his prime following two Super Bowl championships, the Patriots wideout tore his ACL and had to sit out for the entirety of New England's campaign to claim Super Bowl LII. On top of that, the then 32-year-old had to delay his return after getting a suspension for performance-enhancing substances.
Edelman got vulnerable talking about this period of time, describing it as his darkest days professionally while hosting a discussion about his recent drop of non-fungible token artwork on the Clubhouse app.
But he also shared what he did to lift himself back up.
"I tore my ACL at 32 years old, I got suspended, I was out for the first four games. You know, those are very, very low times in my life," Edelman said during the conversation Saturday.
"I mean, some people may say, 'oh it's just it's just a body part, this or that,' but that's like a crucial part of my love, because your legs are so important. I was at such a low point in life, in that in that space in time that it was, you know, it was tough. And I had to lean on people, I leaned on people in my corner. I leaned on people I loved. And those people helped me, and they helped propel me out of it. And I believed in the process. People have torn their ACL, I may be a little older. I mean, I'm not 22 anymore and I don't feel the same, this, that. But I can do this. It's been done. If it's been done once, it can be done again because I'm gonna do everything in my heart to work myself to be able to do that."
Edelman played in the remaining games after coming back from injury and suspension in 2018, and he tried his best to be durable 16 games for New England in 2019. In the shortened 2020 season, he was shut down after just six games.
