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News that my former teammate and my really good friend, Marcus Lattimore, possibly is retiring from the NFL is a very tough choice to comprehend.
While he was one of the most versatile backs in all of college football during his tenure at South Carolina, two blowouts to his knees have been devastating for his NFL career. Nobody can blame the kid for considering retiring and moving on with his life, but one thing is for sure, we all wanted to see him do well in the NFL.
It’s a very difficult choice to hang up the cleats, and for a guy that dominated the college level and had so much potential to parlay that success into a career at the highest level, we can only imagine the amount of pain and agony he’s gone through.
What made Marcus so special was also his downfall. The guy absolutely hated to be tackled and ran angry on every single carry.
I watched him as a true freshman tear up a very good Georgia defense. He looked like a pinball as he was just bouncing off would-be tacklers. Ever since that game, he was heralded as one of the best to ever come through Columbia, S.C.
I would have to agree. I think what a lot of people didn’t notice about Lattimore was his pass-catching ability and his blocking. The kid would knock your head off if you tried blitzing or if he was simply “chipping” the defensive end. As a quarterback, it’s always comforting to know your running back isn’t afraid to block and is always in a mismatch while running a route on a linebacker.
Another thing that made Marcus Lattimore so special was his work ethic. If you were to ask anyone in our locker room, they would say the same thing. The guy was a freakin’ moose in the weight room and in the film room. His recovery process was grueling and he was still able to be a fourth-round selection in the NFL. That should tell you something.
Lastly, he was an exceptional teammate. During my time at South Carolina, I would regularly have cookouts for my teammates and he was one of the guys that always showed up. It wasn’t just team functions, it was everything. He was everywhere and always wanted to be around his teammates.
As a player, you respect that because in the end, the locker room is the only thing that matters. The guys in that locker room are your brothers that you go to battle with on a constant basis. When you see someone regularly, you build that trust. There really isn’t a brotherhood quite like a football team. And Marcus was one of the best brothers a guy could ask for.
If there is one thing that I am 100 percent positive about, it’s that Marcus Lattimore will be a successful member of society and will lead people to better lives. I am very proud to have played with him for two years and to call him a friend.
The Man. The Myth. The Legend.