Jaelan Phillips will be keeping an eye on Nic Scourton through rehab

In addition to the physical benefits of pre-surgery work, Phillips knows first-hand how hard it can be when you’re removed from the communal experience.

“Being hurt is something that nobody really understands how alienating it can be until you’ve been in that position,” Phillips said. “The way football is, we’re so regimented, and we have to be so present and focused that you know if something’s not in front of you, you really don’t pay a lot of attention to it. So you know, as somebody who’s hurt, you have a completely different schedule; you’re never really around us, whether it’s the locker room banter or the warmups, the training. There’s a lot of closeness that comes from the blood, sweat, and tears that we go through together on a daily basis.

“And so when you’re outside of that routine, it can be very alienating, it can be depressing, it can be just a really s—ty experience. So for him to be around, I think it’s super helpful just given the fact that he’s young, we’re all very close.”

“Right now I think it’s important for him to be around and for us to be able to uplift him and vice versa, because he is a special energy that really it’s not the same without him.”