COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — This could have been the season when redshirt freshman Cody Saunders enjoyed his first taste of game action at West Virginia.
Instead, he’s giving up the sport, sabotaged by an undetected injury from years ago that, in hindsight, made it miraculous he ever became a Division I quarterback at all.
Saunders didn’t know anything about trapezius palsy when he made a spring break trip home to Panama City Beach, Fla., in mid-March. Saunders was intent on staying sharp for his battle to become WVU’s backup quarterback, so he threw passes to players at his alma mater, Arnold High School.
When his rotator cuff became inflamed, Saunders presumed it was a symptom of overwork — a continuation of the arm fatigue he felt during winter passing drills.
Upon returning to Morgantown for the remainder of spring practice, Saunders had the shoulder checked out, anticipating nothing worse than minor surgery to alleviate the pain.
But a team orthopedist discovered something more rare and debilitating. Using an electromyograph that sent currents through Saunders’ neck, they learned he had suffered spinal accessory nerve damage. Essentially, the nerve to his right trapezius wasn’t firing — apparently hadn’t been for years — and a muscle crucial to any quarterback had atrophied.
“How the hell do you throw the football?” asked Mountaineers team trainer Dave Kerns.
Sanders remembered that medical and strength staffers noticed irregularities in his right shoulder when he enrolled in 2016. It didn’t seem too alarming though, because he performed all the weightlifting and passing drills throughout his redshirt season.
“It was like, ‘Yeah, I have a weird shoulder, but I’m still playing,’” he said.
As recently as this March, newly hired offensive coordinator Jake Spavital spoke optimistically of developing Sanders’ dual-threat abilities.
The discovery of a withered trapezius effectively ended his days as a Power 5 passer, though Saunders considered a position change. Ultimately, the vulnerability of the weakened shoulder carried too many risks.
“Without a trap in my right shoulder, I could get hit the wrong way in a live contact session and next thing you know I’m hurt even worse. I had a doctor ask me if I wanted to play football for the next three or four years or be able to throw the football with my kid growing up? So that was kind of a no-brainer,” Saunders said.
“That’s the kind of questions you have to ask yourself: How do you want to move forward with your life? Do you want to live comfortably? Do you want to be healthy?”
Saunders was “heartbroken” to give up football before playing a down at West Virginia, yet he takes pride in having earned a Division I scholarship despite such an injury. Doctors suggested the nerve damage dates back to a hit during Saunders’ freshman or sophomore years at Arnold — the outset of a high school career in which he somehow threw for more than 4,700 yards and ran for 2,000-plus.
“The last eight, nine years of my life have revolved around football and coming to a Division I university,” he said. “I played practice snaps but I was never able to play on the field, and that’s something I’ll forever hold in my head. But I was still able to achieve a full Division I scholarship and get my degree.”
Within that degree lies an important parting gift. By allocating Saunders for a medical hardship waiver, his scholarship will continue at WVU, where he’s on track to graduate by December 2018.
“I’m not planning to transfer,” he said. “I feel at home in West Virginia. I love Morgantown and the relationships I’ve built with the people here.”
Already inquiring about the chance to eventually become a graduate assistant coach, Saunders hopes to stay involved with the game that has consumed him for years.
“You can’t imagine how much research I’ve done, and how I have asked every single question trying to find an answer in order to keep playing,” he said.
“Any athlete would probably do the same thing, but that’s the decision I’ve made. I’m at peace with it. I have to be.”