Jaguars receiver Calvin Ridley, who has just been reinstated to the NFL after a year-long suspension for gambling on games, says that during his time with the Falcons, he played through a misdiagnosed foot injury and needed painkillers to do it.
“Hardly anybody knows this, but I played most of the 2020 season with a broken foot,” Ridley wrote at ThePlayersTribune.com. “Remember that 1,300-yard season? Nine touchdowns? I was killing it on one foot, for real. Actually, I had played through bone spurs my first two years. Just gritted through it with painkillers. But then, my third year, the wheels came off. Week 8, we were playing Carolina and I remember looking at Julio [Jones] and I just knew. I said, ‘Nah, bro, this is different. My shit broke.’
“When I got the MRI, though, the trainer told me it was just a bone bruise. So I kept it pushing. I took Toradol shots every Sunday, and I finished the season. Listen, I know the deal. I’m a football player. It was my decision. I know what we get paid for, you feel me? If it’s really just a bruise, I’m gonna be out there.
“We finished 4–12, and then the whole staff got fired. Coach, GM, head trainer, everybody. When the new trainer finally came in, he sent me to a specialist in Green Bay. Within the first hour, the doctor said, ‘Your foot is definitely broken.’”
Ridley says that having to rely on painkillers affected his mental health, ultimately leading to him taking a leave of absence from the Falcons.
“I still couldn’t plant without painkillers. So you get trapped in this cycle where it’s like, ‘If you take this pill, you can run,” Ridley writes. “After practice, once that painkiller wears off, you still have to come home and be a husband and a father. . . . I can’t even do anything but lie around in a dark room. That’s when the anxiety really started. I knew something was off, but I didn’t want to let anybody down. My plan was to get through another season with pills and shots. Do my job. Grit it out. I suited up Week 1 a shell of myself, but I played.”
Ridley says the only time he gambled on football was during that leave of absence, when he was just trying to find something to do. He says he’s now in a better place both physically and mentally, and that he’s ready to have a big season for the Jaguars.