Pouncey still producing after gruesome injury
A frightened Maurkice Pouncey thought his football career was over at age 26. It happened two years ago when a leg injury turned into a terrifying ordeal.
The fractured fibula and ankle sprain led to two different infections including staph, prompted eight surgeries, the insertion and removal of metal plates and canceled his entire season.
In the middle of the ordeal, it was not the 2015 season he was concerned about but the rest of his career.
“I thought football was done,” Pouncey said at Steelers training camp. “Heck, yeah, it was serious. I was on two PICC lines, infectious disease medicine. It was pretty serious.”
That Pouncey is back at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., for his eighth training camp attests to his recovery. That he made his fifth Pro Bowl in 2016 and came within one game of the Super Bowl with his teammates tells how well he bounced back.
He credited his doctors for the recovery and to line coach Mike Munchak for his continued success on the field.
“He saved my career,” Pouncey said, describing blocking techniques Munchak showed him that would protect him more.
Then there is the matter of who saved his life, or at least turned it in a different direction from where it was going. Maturity, he said, did that.
No more big birthday bashes with twin brother Mike. No more partying that led to some notorious episodes such as the alleged fight at a Miami nightclub in 2014 that prompted a civil suit that was settled out of court in March. There was the infamous wearing of the “Free Hernandez” caps in 2013.
“I’m just more mature now,” Pouncey said. “I don’t have to go out and party all the time. I don’t have to go out on the weekends and just drink until I can’t think anymore.
“I have my kids now, I have a serious family thing going on. I just want to be more accountable. I was tired of being the guy every offseason coming here and having to explain myself and the things that happened in my life.”
Three days before he reported to training camp, Pouncey celebrated his 28th birthday. Quietly.
“This year, me and my girl went out to dinner and I was at the house when I texted coach Munch: I’m on the couch already.”
Munchak, a Pro Football Hall of Fame guard with the Houston Oilers after he graduated from Penn State, joined the team in 2014 after the Tennessee Titans fired him as his coach. His linemen worship him and he has helped mold them into one of the best lines in the NFL.
