DuRocher thanks concussion
SEATTLE – Johnny DuRocher doesn’t remember the play that potentially saved his life. He knows he threw an interception against Stanford on Nov. 11 and tried to make a tackle, only to get nailed by a Cardinal player. The play gave DuRocher a concussion, and consequently led doctors to find a benign tumor in the Washington junior quarterback’s brain.
DuRocher has seen film of the play but has little memory of it. But he’s one of the few quarterbacks who has appreciated being given a concussion.
“I’m thinking about writing that guy a thank you,” DuRocher joked at a Tuesday press conference, the first time he’s talked publicly since the tumor became known and in which he appeared remarkably composed and in good humor for someone in his circumstance.
The golf ball-sized tumor was discovered last Friday after a series of tests in the wake of the concussion. DuRocher will have surgery on Nov. 30 at Harborview Medical Center to have the tumor removed. His football career is most likely over.
“It’s real disappointing,” DuRocher said. “I want to play. I’ve been playing for so long. It’s different when it’s your say when you stop playing. I don’t really have much of a say in this, so it’s pretty disappointing.”
DuRocher said the tumor is located near to his skull in his cerebellum and he said the surgeon, Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, the Chair of Neurosurgery at Harborview, said the prognosis is good because it was caught early.
“I was going to have to get it cut out either now or in the future because it was going to keep growing,” DuRocher said. “So I’d rather handle it sooner rather than later.”
“As we worked through these events you realize that maybe the concussion could have been the best thing that could ever happen at this particular time,” Washington head coach Tyrone Willingham said. “That’s one of the sad things you have to say, but it brings a great sense of joy that now we’ve stopped a problem or prevented a problem that could have been life threatening in just a few years.”
DuRocher said he never had any symptoms of the tumor prior to the concussion, and hasn’t been bothered by it since.