Car crash took away his Notre Dame football dream. Now, he begins a new one with Purdue.

WEST LAFAYETTE – Joey Tanona surely imagined this — standing on the sideline in Purdue football’s Ross-Ade Stadium as the historic rivalry with Notre Dame resumes.

Maybe it crossed his mind during a mind-blowing visit to South Bend for junior day. Perhaps he and former coach Brian Kelly discussed it during the Zoom call when Tanona committed to the Fighting Irish. The thought could have sustained him through rugged winter workouts in his first weeks on campus.

Only recently, though, did Tanona begin envisioning this day in gold and black.

“Dreams can change,” he said, “and this is the only place I want to be.”

Thirty months removed from the car crash which ended his Notre Dame career — and could have ended more — Tanona made his collegiate debut. He subbed in at left tackle in the second half of Purdue’s 49-0 season-opening blowout of Indiana State.

Safe to say no one on either team appreciated playing even a single snap more than the Zionsville native.

“We talked about resiliency — he embodies that,” Purdue coach Ryan Walters said after the game.

The concussion symptoms which once forced him to step away — the headaches, the vertigo, the shaky balance — long ago subsided. Normal hearing may never return to his right ear. Right now, he said it sounds like someone screaming at him underwater.

Tanona knows tragedy, and fear, and what it means to mourn the loss of a lifelong dream. Now he also knows triumph. An arduous climb ended on Aug. 31. Yet the best part of this film student’s saga may not yet be written.

“It’s almost like a story written out of a Hollywood movie — like, it’s tough to even make that up,” said Gus Hartwig, a former teammate at Zionsville and current one with the Boilermakers.

“If he’s able to do what I think he can do, I think it can be a hell of an ending.”

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/car-crash-took-away-notre-084730745.html

Author : Indianapolis Star

Publish date : 2024-09-09 08:47:30

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