100% Cotten - Seeing Clearly
9/10/2004 12:00:00 AM | General
by Stan Cotten
Sept. 10, 2004
What young Brodie Overstreet must be thinking.
On September 4th, as an 18-year old, he helped anchor Wake Forest's offensive line as a starter against Clemson in Death Valley - one of the more storied venues in all of college football. The following Thursday he celebrated his 19th birthday. It was one he'll always remember.
But it is also a birthday I'm sure he'd rather forget.
It was Thursday, September 9th, 2004, that Brodie Overstreet's football career, in all probability, came to an end.
Overstreet spent his redshirt season at Wake Forest recovering from surgery to repair a detached retina in his right eye. His vision in that eye remains very poor. Now he is experiencing trouble in his left eye, and doctors have told him that motion and contact associated with football puts Overstreet at greater risk of permanent injury to his "good" eye. That's a risk that Coach Jim Grobe is not willing to take.
"Our concern for [Brodie] is no different as it would be for our own children," Grobe said in an athletic department release. "Taking a chance of losing your eyesight is just not a risk worth taking."
"Brodie is a great kid who can still have a great academic career at Wake Forest. He can do great things outside of football."
Following his ordeal with the detached retina from last season, I'm sure Brodie Overstreet felt his bout with his eyes was over. But he'll make it. He's made it before and is used to dealing with the curve balls that life sometimes throws.
As a senior at Boyle County High School in Danville, Kentucky, the oversized Overstreet had to deal with a little offspeed pitch known as Graves Disease. The leading cause of hyperthyroidism, Graves Disease represents a basic defect in the immune system causing antibodies that stimulate and attack the thyroid gland. It is not curable, but it is treatable and obviously able to be managed.
Graves Disease occurs in less than one fourth of one percent of the population and normally targets females. The odds of him ever even having to know what Graves Disease is are astronomical. "Why me?" would be an understandable question if I'm Brodie Overstreet.
But he persevered through that season and did not miss a game - just some defensive time for part of the season (Overstreet played both offense and defense in high school). And if his history is any indicator, Overstreet will handle this latest obstacle in his young life and let it make him a better person.
An Honor Roll student in high school, Brodie Overstreet has what it takes to excel in the classroom at Wake Forest. Barring a miracle or a drastic change of diagnosis, the classroom is where he will make his mark during the remainder of his time as a Demon Deacon.
With a little time and a lot of perspective, Brodie Overstreet will be thankful his eye troubles were caught before disaster struck.
He will see this clearly - in time.
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