Surgeries hide secrets.
Uniforms conceal the scars. Rehabilitation becomes agonizing. Tucked away from the crowds and teammates, the light dims. Hope becomes a stranger.
Ryan Rolison, after his second shoulder operation in two years, wondered if he was ever going to throw a ball again.
“I was anxious. I was depressed and wondering, ‘Why me?’” Rolison told The Denver Post last week of his mindset in the fall of 2023. “As a competitor, all you want to do is be on the field. It was so frustrating. It took me to a dark place.