It’s not the first time an NFL player went above and beyond for his team in the Super Bowl.
Eleven years ago, then-Eagles receiver Terrell Owens went against the advice of some in the medical community and played in the Super Bowl despite a fractured right fibula and torn lower leg ligament.
Owens suffered the injury on December 19, 2004 in a game against the Dallas Cowboys when he was tackled from behind by Cowboys safety Roy Williams. Owens’ ankle was severely twisted and the force of it ripped his interosseous ligament and fractured his fibula about four inches below his knee, according to Eagles doctors.
Surgeons then put a pair of metal screws through his tibia and fibula to stabilize them so the body could repair itself—a process that would normally take months. But Owens was back seven weeks later to help Philadelphia win the Super Bowl. He did all he could too catching nine passes for 122 yards in the Eagles 24–21 loss to the Patriots.
