Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE As fans and media following Notre Dame, many of us spent the last sev- eral weeks trying to diagnose the fail- ing health of the Irish football team, all while McCarthy was bravely un- dergoing surgeries and chemotherapy, never griping about it and doing ev- erything in his power to stay on the field and next to his players. Even while enduring the draining and sickening aftereffects of chemo and his other aggressive cancer treat- ments, McCarthy only once had to take any significant time away from work during his four-month battle. It took a "major surgery" in early No- vember to knock him off the job for 10 days and away from the game against Arizona State Nov. 8 — the lone game he missed this season. Beyond that, McCarthy never com- plained or gave an indication that any- thing was wrong during his recovery, essentially racing over to the football field almost immediately after his ex- hausting and nauseating chemo treat- ments. "He was unbelievable," Kelly said of the perseverance McCarthy showed. "He did not miss a practice after chemo." Which serves as more evidence of the commitment to excellence that Mc- Carthy showed in the way he played football, the way he coaches, and in the way he lives his life. McCarthy was an undersized three- star recruit coming out of football power Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown, Ohio, and his scholar- ship offers included Kent State, Navy and Toledo, not exactly a who's who of football powers. Expected to be mainly a special teams regular and a situational player at Notre Dame, McCarthy surprised everybody as a fourth-year junior in 2008 when he led the Irish with 110 tackles, becoming the first Notre Dame defensive back to ever record 100 or more stops in a single season. For an encore as a fifth-year senior in 2009, McCarthy became a team captain and led the Irish with five in- terceptions and 101 tackles, beating out future NFL draft picks Manti Te'o and Harrison Smith in both categories. McCarthy's 240 career tackles rank among the most ever at Notre Dame by a defensive back. And after his career at Notre Dame was finished, McCarthy again defied all odds when he went from an un- drafted free agent to an NFL roster, re- cording six tackles in 12 games during two seasons with the Denver Broncos before knee injuries ended his profes- sional career. And now McCarthy is back home, where he belongs, feeling especially thankful during a Thanksgiving sea- son that means more than any before it. "This has truly been a humbling and eye-opening experience," McCarthy said. "I'm excited to put this behind me and turn the page on this chapter of my life." As we all are. ✦ Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com