T.J. Thorpe returns to UNC football after injuries

T.J. Thorpe has learned the hard way that all it takes is one play.

Since joining the North Carolina football team in 2011, the now junior wide receiver has broken his left foot three times.

Thorpe remembers each break vividly. He recites the exact moment of the injuries like the verse of his favorite song because, each time, it only took one play to send him to the sideline.

Aug. 5, 2012 — the third day of fall training camp before his sophomore season. Thorpe, coming off an impressive 2011 freshman season after which he earned All-ACC Honorable Mention honors, ran a route and stepped on the side of his foot.

“I could hear it,” Thorpe said. “It was a big pop. And right then and there, I knew something was wrong.”

Thorpe missed the entire 2012 season with his broken left foot, which required surgery to place a small screw in the bone. He returned for UNC football’s annual Blue Dawn spring practices, looking to put the injury behind him and pick up right where he left off his freshman season.

Feb. 7, 2013 — a drill cost him this time. Running a shuttle, Thorpe cut harshly and his foot popped again.

“It went all the way to the screw,” he remembers. This time, though, the injury only sidelined Thorpe for three months, allowing him to play the entire 2013 season.

Aug. 2, 2014 — the latest break, which occurred the second day of fall training camp before this season. The play called for Thorpe to run a dig route, but once he caught the ball, a defensive player pulled him down awkwardly on his foot.

“I can’t believe it’s happening again,” Thorpe said he thought to himself.

The third break only sidelined Thorpe for two games to start the 2014 season before he made his return Saturday against East Carolina.

“I know he loves being back on the field,” wide receiver Quinshad Davis said. “I can see it in his eyes.”

Against ECU, all it took was one play again. Only this time, Thorpe found himself on the bright side of the play’s conclusion.

On his first play of the 2014 season, Thorpe hauled in a 35-yard touchdown pass from wide receiver Ryan Switzer on a trick play.

“To be back, and in your first game score a touchdown, you have to be the happiest man on earth,” quarterback Marquise Williams said.

This week, UNC will hit the road for Death Valley to play Clemson for the first time since 2011. That game holds a special place in Thorpe’s heart. As a freshman against Clemson, he returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown — the second longest kick return in UNC football history.

All it took was one play.

And for Thorpe, that’s the one play he likes to remember the most — not the ones that, three times, led to a broken left foot.

“Probably one of the happiest moments of my life,” he said.

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