 Chris Canty’s injury may serve as inspiration. |
One of the things that makes a sport, and particularly college football, such a wonderful game is its unpredictability. In any given game, on any given Saturday (or these days any Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, too), a team that has no business winning a game will win. A team that has no business losing a game will lose. And players who have never before and never again will be stars jump up and have the performances of their lives.
It’s why we watch and why we love the game.
But there is a cruel side to the unpredictability of this sport, and it is a side that Virginia fans are beginning to know all too well. A side of separated shoulders, broken bones and twisted knees. A side of concussions and sprains. Or a side of ailments more abstract, more obscure, and, occasionally, much more severe.
Injuries are college football’s grand irony – the constant reminder that, no matter how big, strong and fast human beings can become, they are still breakable, still very much human. They are the dasher of hopes and the breakers of dreams, and they have destroyed many a promising season for teams and players throughout the history of the sport.
But injuries can be something else, something far less damaging. They can be a cause. They can be an inspiration. In a game where the psychological edge is often the difference between beating a worthy rival or losing to it, injuries can provide a motivation stronger than anything a healthy individual can provide for himself.
What often is the difference between an injury becoming a debilitating and demoralizing event versus an inspirational rallying cry is the individual involved. Who this person is to his teammates, and how he handles the adverse circumstances dealt by the football gods, can go a long way towards determining how his teammates and coaches react to his absence.
If that is the case, Virginia is in good hands.
 As a captain, Canty can still be a big part of Virginia’s team. |
There is no more vocal and demonstrative player on the Virginia football team than Chris Canty. Over his years with the program, he has transformed himself from a skinny but athletic boy out of Charlotte into a monstrous and dominating man of a defensive end. And more important than the muscle he has forged onto his tall frame is the maturity, leadership and respect he has forged out of his teammates.
This 2004 Cavalier defense, in fact this 2004 Cavalier team, is Chris Canty’s. There are others with great leadership qualities on this roster – Alvin Pearman and Marques Hagans, for instance – but the team is Chris Canty’s. With his outgoing and well-spoken nature, his work ethic and his relentless play, Canty represents, in one man, the metamorphosis of the Virginia program under Al Groh. Four years ago, he was undersized and overwhelmed. Now, after four years of rigorous training, learning and experience, he is perhaps the best defensive lineman in the nation. On this Cavalier roster, he is not alone in such a transformation.
Losing Chris Canty the football player is a major blow to the Virginia program on the field. His skills are undeniable, and his consistency and disruption invaluable to a defense. As a man, neither Kwakou Robinson, Chris Johnson nor Chris Long can be Chris Canty. It is unreasonable to ask them to be, and even more foolish to expect them to be at this point in their careers. This being the case, at one position – Chris Canty’s position – there will be some level of drop-off.
But Chris Canty the person has not been lost. Chris Canty the student, Chris Canty the representative of the Virginia program and Chris Canty the leader are all still very much in existence and with this program. And these Chris Cantys, by themselves, are a lot more than many major programs across the country have.
Instead, new challenges now await both Chris Canty and his Virginia teammates.
 Literally and figuratively, Canty can carry the flag. |
For Canty, the challenge is of not only maintaining his role of team leader but increasing it, of not allowing those around him to use his injury as an excuse for failing to accomplish everything this team set out to achieve. The challenge of setting the tone for what this injury really means to this program, by showing others it is in no way a defeat, only one more hurdle to be cleared en route to victory.
For his teammates, the challenge is to channel the feelings of frustration and sadness from losing a good friend and teammate on the field into a level of play that transcends what they have been able to muster to date. It’s a matter of every player on every Virginia unit – defense, offense and special teams – understanding that only by raising their collective play to a level previously not considered attainable will they overcome the loss of a tremendous player.
For Chris Canty and this Virginia team, meeting these challenges means that the goals of this team when the season started can and will be met. It means that everything that these players worked for during the long offseason and training camp is still very much within their grasp. And it means that the measure of a leader isn’t limited to statistics in a box score.
Chris Canty will never again put on a Cavalier uniform and take the field for Virginia, and this is undeniably tragic. But that is where the tragedy ends. Because Chris Canty will be on the field – either in spirit or in person – with his teammates for the remainder of this season. He will be in the locker room and the film room, the classroom and the practice field. He will be there because he is a leader, and leaders know that what happens on the field is only a fraction of what makes them, and their team, what they are.
Late last season, Coach Groh introduced a flag to his players and asked them to step up, individually and collectively, to carry this flag through times of trouble. Since that point, the team has not lost a game.
The Cavaliers once again find themselves in a difficult time, only of a different nature. And this time, there is one man who should – and likely will – stand up and carry the flag, all the way to the finish line. He’ll do it because he’s embodied the concept since he set foot on Grounds at Virginia. He’ll do it because it’s the only way he knows how to be. He’ll do it because he’s a leader.
Carry the flag, Chris. And everyone else will follow.
