– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY — Over the past 11 months, Los Angeles Rams tight end Tyler Higbee poured over limitless amounts of tape during countless film study sessions, but the few images he saw on video last night was, by far, the most influential in portending success in his first official game back on an NFL field in over a year.
The motion picture was less action and much more drama, intimate moments of Higbee lugging a bulky brace on his reconstructed knee and the arduous rehab that highlighted most of his 2024. When it wasn’t the pain and struggle that filled the screen, it was images of him and his daughter that featured, reminding him of the people he dedicates his love and life to. After all, football is just a game.
Yet football was the arena that meant so much to Higbee and all of his teammates on Sunday afternoon, and his plunge into the end zone set off an eruption on the Rams sideline that warmed every player’s heart inside the arctic conditions of MetLife Stadium.
Higbee marked his first game back after suffering a torn ACL and MCL last January by scoring the game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter, an 11-yard catch-and-run that ended with him diving into the end zone along the right sideline, as the Los Angeles Rams defeated the New York Jets 19-9 to win their fourth game in a row and maintain control of the NFC West Division lead with two games remaining.
That score soon set off rapturous celebrations amongst his teammates, those who were part of the play and ran and jumped all over the ninth-year tight end, as well as those on the sidelines who almost all spilled onto the field knowing what that score meant in the Rams’ in-game comeback and, more importantly, Higbee’s arduous comeback onto a football field, where most of those teammates saw him last being carted off the field in Detroit after that devastating injury in the playoff defeat to the Detroit Lions.
“There were a lot of guys that were so excited for him because of what he means to them as a teammate, more importantly as a human being, and he happens to also be a stud on the football field,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. “He epitomizes everything that’s right about this team — mentally tough, physically tough, resilient, and can respond to different types of things. I love him and it was a really cool moment today.”
Today’s touching moment was preceded by an even more touching move by Higbee’s wife, who created and sent the video that Higbee saw in reminding him one more time about the hard journey that eventually paid off in returning back onto the field.
“My wife put together a montage of clips of me being injured and going through the rehab process and stuff like that. That was special seeing me with my daughter, with [being] in a knee brace and not being able to walk very well,” Higbee said. “That got pretty emotional.”
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