Conditions + Treatments
ACL Injury/Reconstruction
Meniscus Tear
I was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. I originally attended Burke High School but later transferred to Millard North High School. In high school, I was a football player, and during my senior year, the Millard North Mustangs won the Nebraska state football championship.
As a senior, a few colleges started scouting me, but the whole recruiting process wasn’t the best. However, I kept my head up and continued to give 100% effort on and off the field. Eventually, I was recruited by Northwest Missouri State University, an NCAA Division II program located in Maryville, Missouri. I accepted their scholarship offer and began my dream of playing football at the collegiate level.
I was redshirted my freshman year, and then I had a COVID red shirt year, so I played at Northwest Missouri State from 2016 to December 2021. As a redshirt freshman, we went 15-0 and won the NCAA DII national championship. Since 1998, Northwest Missouri State has won six (6) Division II National Championships.
During my junior year, I was playing linebacker in a road playoff game against Grand Valley State when our defensive back intercepted a pass. As I turned to block, my left foot stayed in place and my knee went forward. In that moment, I tore my ACL and one of our Bearcat team surgeons performed ACL reconstruction surgery.
I rehabbed for months working hard to make it back for my senior season in the fall of 2019. On my first day back to practice, freshly healed from my ACL surgery, I tore the meniscus in the same left knee.
My senior year, I was finally healthy and able to play the entire season injury free. We had a great season, finishing with an overall record of 11-2. I was grateful for my time at Northwest Missouri State. Through my ACL injury, meniscus tear, and obviously the COVID year, it has been a long journey, but I am grateful I preserved through the adversity. I left Maryville with an undergraduate degree in Business Management and a master’s degree in business administration.
Soon after our 2021 college season ended, the Birmingham Stallions of the USFL called and I signed to play with the team during the 2022 season. We opened the season against the New Jersey Generals in the league’s inaugural game at Protective Stadium. We had a great season, finishing 9-1 and winning the USFL Championship, defeating the Philadelphia Stars 33-31.
During the sixth game of our 2022 USFL season, I once again injured my left knee. Two days later, I was at Andrews Sports Medicine, where our Stallions team doctor, Dr. Marc Rothermich, diagnosed me with a quad tear in my left knee. Unfortunately, my season was over.
Overall, Dr. Rothermich was awesome to work with; a very nice and pleasant guy. He was confident he could help me overcome this surgery – my third surgery on the same left knee. When you are an athlete going through a surgery and recovery, it is nice to not have to worry about the surgeon or the process very much. Dr. Rothermich was spot on with everything and made me feel comfortable about my situation.
Later that week, Dr. Rothermich performed my quad tendon repair surgery. The recovery process for my ACL reconstruction in college and this quad repair were both different. My quad was definitely more painful. For the first month post-op, I was on crutches. My left knee was very weak, but I pressed through the pain one day at a time. Since I had already been through my ACL recovery, every day dealing with my quad got better.
The experience was definitely a mental awareness check for me. I went through it physically with my ACL and even with my quad, but at this point it was more of a mental game. For my first month of post-op, I went to ATI Physical Therapy in Birmingham, then I moved back home to Omaha and worked with a physical therapist at Physical Edge in Omaha. I kept working hard in PT, doing what my physical therapist instructed, knowing I would be good as new. All of my physical therapists took great care of me.
The recovery was a quick process. At physical therapy, they told me it would be about 9-12 months of work to recover well but I was about 90-95% at 6-7 months! My physical therapy record had me fully recovered at 9 months. I was ahead of every benchmark, and I trained at full speed in early 2023.
In the offseason following the Stallions USFL Championship, I continued to put my college degrees to work. From a young age, I helped my father with house renovations and flipping houses. Since graduating college, I have flipped houses during the offseason. Once my playing days are over, I plan to go into real estate full time.
My goal was to get back on the field for the 2023 USFL season. I made it back to training camp, but unfortunately I was cut by the Stallions. Nine months of off-season training and rehab from my quad tear leading up to not making the cut was equally disappointing and frustrating, but the truth of the matter is when you sign up to pursue your lofty dreams you sign up for failures and speed bumps, it’s apart of it.
However, I continued to train hard in hopes of getting another shot. In mid-May I was contacted by the Stallions and I was provided the opportunity to resign with the team, and I was pumped to re-sign. I'm so grateful to have been provided a second chance by the Stallions and to play a role in help lead the Birmingham Stallions to back-to-back USFL Championships! I've learned to take the good with the bad, and the ugly with the beautiful, and thank God for it all.
I have already recommended Andrews Sports Medicine to many people I know. They are so well known in the sports industry and definitely live up to their name. I had a great experience, and everything was done in a timely manner. Thank you to Andrews and Dr. Rothermich for helping me achieve Victory Over Injury and continuing to live out my passion of playing professional football!
Follow Brody Buck at https://www.instagram.com/brodybuck/
