Alex Anzalone squeezed into his shoulder pads, strapped on an orange helmet in Tampa Florida. It was business as normal for the senior linebacker, except now; he was doing so with a surgically repaired forearm that needed to have a plate inserted. He also had an extra pad on his left forearm secured in place by athletic tape.
Anzalone was having a great season. Eight games in he was second on the team with 45 tackles. Then, making his eight tackle of the afternoon in a blowout loss to Arkansas it happened. Anzalone’s arm snapped and he was immediately taken off the field. AT the time he didn’t think it would be the last time he ever played a competitive snap for the University of Florida.
“For me it was more of, ‘shoot, I can’t play anymore.’ I can’t play the next play,” Anzalone told Gator Country. “That’s the kind of mentality I had when that happened.”
Dealing with injury, unfortunately, had become old hat for Anzalone. There was the shoulder surgery that happened in one of his first practices after enrolling early as a freshman. He battled through several injuries that season and played in 10 games. In 2015 he played in just two games before another shoulder injury ended his season.
The summer before his final season in Orange and Blue, Anzalone graduated. He’s always been a good student, he graduated high school earl with a 4.1 GPA, and he enrolled in graduate school at Florida. He was even accepted into Florida’s Law School.
Anzalone’s season as right on schedule; he was staying healthy, playing at a high level and the Gators were 6-1 heading into Fayetteville. The injury changed everything but it also made him grow. There’s not much you can do with a broken arm. Surgery was set, the bone was put back into place and Anzalone was placed in a cast, but he didn’t become a ghost. He was at almost every practice and traveled to every game to help the young Gators’ linebackers.
“I think it was really important,” Anzalone said of why he made sure to stay active in any way he could. “Those guys look up to you and know that you know everything, the ins and the outs of the defense. I think it was really important for us to do that. Me and (Jarrad Davis) had older guys helping us out like Antonio (Morrison). It’s just giving back and at the end of the day you just want to help the team win. If that’s what you gotta do then that’s what you gotta do.”
Anzalone returned to practice in Gainesville as the Gators prepared for the Outback Bowl. He desperately wanted to give it a go, but when the time came he simply wasn’t ready healthy-wise.
“I wanted to be out there with my teammates and play and hit some people,” he said. “It was just one of those deals where it wasn’t completely ready and after talking to the coaching staff we all decided it wasn’t a good idea.”
He watched a fifth-straight game from the sideline and then was faced with a decision. Because of his injury in 2015 he could have applied for a medical hardship waiver — which would likely have been granted — and return in 2017 for his final season, or he could declare for the NFL Draft. Through the first eight games he had shown better pass coverage, probably the area in his game he needed to improve on the most. He’s athletic and smart, Anzalone had a scholarship offer to play lacrosse at Yale when he was in high school, and those two traits are coveted in the pass-happy NFL. The decision, still, was one of the toughest he would ever have to make.
“It was one of those things where I had already graduated. That’s number one. You want to leave with your degree. Even if you can leave and come back and get your degree it’s still difficult to do. I had been in grad school, and the feedback I had gotten (from NFL teams) was all-good,” he said. “I really think the knock on me this year is going to be the knock on me next year. Those are just some of the ideas you have and the discussions you have with everyone, Coach Mac, Coach Shannon and everyone.”
The coaching staff agreed that the same injury red flags he is now discussing with teams wouldn’t change, even if he returned and played in every game in 2017. Anzalone was mature enough to handle the decision and he announced via a letter on the school’s website, thanking the fans, coaches and his teammates for four great years.
He’s spent the last week in Mobile, Alabama at the Senior Bowl. He’s stayed healthy, something he jokingly requested we point out in the story, and has turned the heads of NFL teams. He’ll play his last collegiate game at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Saturday at 2:30. One last chance to put on that orange helmet with the classic Gators script on either side. He has a degree from the University of Florida and four years of memories with guys that were once strangers who he now considers brothers. The next phase of his life will begin when the Senior Bowl ends but he’ll always consider himself a Gator.