When Chris Maragos took the field for some Thursday Night Football action against the Carolina Panthers in Week 6 of 2017, he did not know that it would be the last time he would ever play the game of football.
The former Eagles safety/special teams ace was on punt coverage trying to chase Christian McCaffrey. His leg was fully planted into the ground when teammate Najee Goode lunged to tackle McCaffrey, missing him entirely and going full force into Maragos' knee. The impact caused a hyperextension and popped one of his ligaments out of place.
Maragos detailed the injury and the initial recovery in a 2018 YouTube episode the team put out.
Initially, Maragos believed he would eventually get on the field again for the Eagles. His knee failed him though, as he had to get an eventual second and third surgery to try to fully repair the knee. He announced his retirement the same day of his third surgery.
Now almost 1,000 days since he initially suffered his career-ending injury, Maragos took to Twitter to ask for prayers as he continues his knee rehab.
It is unclear if he will be needing yet another surgery, but it's obvious he is still having issues trying to get his knee back to 100% (if it ever can go back).
As fans, we sometimes forget about the beatings players' bodies take for our enjoyment. Of course concussions/CTE are always the most-talked-about issues when a football player retires, but these men also deal with trauma to other parts of their bodies that will affect them for the rest of their life.
Unfortunately for Maragos, it appears he will have a painful memory from his football days that will carry with him possibly for the rest of his life. At least he has a couple of Super Bowl rings to look at during his rehab to distract him from the pain...
