How farming and family forged Eagles center Cam Jurgens

CAM JURGENS' WHITE Dodge Ram pickup motortruck crunches the gravel arsenic helium pulls up to his boyhood location connected the outskirts of Pickrell, Nebraska, colonisation 186. Three generations of Jurgens unrecorded connected this half-mile of farmland with corn, cows and entity stretching arsenic acold arsenic the oculus tin see.

With tousled reddish hair, the 6-foot-3, 303-pound Philadelphia Eagles halfway walks done the doorway of the humble 1,400-square ft home. "Made it!" his ma Beth says successful a blessed sing-song dependable from the kitchen.

It's the 3rd week of June -- the summertime solstice -- and the prima volition radiance brightly connected Cam Jurgens this weekend. Tonight, Beatrice High School, his alma mater, is dedicating its shot tract to him. Tomorrow, the Super Bowl champion who gutted done the full play with a herniated disc volition beryllium the expansive marshal astatine the town's Homestead Days parade.

Jurgens, who has been signing T-shirts since helium walked done the door, says determination are galore parallels betwixt shot and farming. He motions to his dad, Ted.

"He's had a batch of injuries moving the farm," Jurgens says.

Ted sighs.

Years ago, erstwhile Cam was a kid, Ted was moving connected the workplace erstwhile helium accidentally dropped a forklift attachment connected his knee. It was winter, it was zero degrees out, and Ted was sweating profusely due to the fact that his kneecap had slid down his leg.

"I wasn't gonna bash thing astir it," Ted says. "I inactive had to bash chores, and I'm thinking, 'Well, I person to locomotion this happening off.'"

He worked for astir an hr earlier helium got help, yet learning he'd torn his ACL, MCL -- conscionable astir each acronym you tin deliberation of.

Jurgens experienced his ain symptom past winter. The herniated disc, helium says, was nary large deal. But things escalated during the playoffs, and abruptly his near limb was successful aggravated pain. What Jurgens didn't cognize past was that portion of the disc had breached disconnected and lodged into his sciatic nerve, which is problematic for idiosyncratic who needs to basal connected some legs and artifact ample men.

But Jurgens, and the Eagles, prevailed. He had backmost country and signed a four-year, $68 cardinal declaration hold during the offseason.

He's moving astir overmuch amended now.

Beth, a seven-time way and tract nationalist champion successful assemblage with a four-inch scar moving down her limb from genu replacement surgery, prepares an aboriginal supper of baked potatoes, crockery and pork chops. Everyone gathers astatine the room array to eat.

Occasional squeaks punctuate the household conversation. They emanate from a tiny crate adjacent the kitchen. "We got a kitten successful here," Cam says. She is the runt of the litter, the weakling, and the different barn cats aren't letting her eat. One of her ears is adjacent turned down. Beth is tending to her, keeping her harmless from the blistery Nebraska summertime and the coyotes prowling the fields looking for casual prey.

Out here, lone the beardown survive.

BEATRICE IS NINE miles southbound of Pickrell, and with 12,261 people, it's a metropolis, with restaurants, state stations and a Walmart. Back successful 1863, it was location to the country's archetypal homesteader, Daniel Freeman, who planted corn, wheat and oats connected his 160 acres.

Before the Jurgens household near for the tract ceremony, Beth softly said she hoped radical would amusement up.

The upwind was the biggest menace to turnout -- an utmost vigor informing gripped the plains each weekend, with temperatures soaring into the 100s. But arsenic the prima slid down, the stadium started to fill.

Families planted tract chairs successful the parking batch to perceive to Jurgens talk implicit the PA strategy and ticker the fireworks afterward. His aged precocious schoolhouse teammates sat connected a seat on the sideline facing him.

At the podium, Jurgens thanked them for coming and shared a fewer inglorious memories. "I retrieve ... catching immoderate touchdowns down there," Jurgens says, pointing astatine the extremity zone. "Breaking my ankle close implicit determination astatine the 20. Hyperextending my elbow implicit there. I've wounded myself a batch connected this field.

"I conscionable retrieve truthful galore times with these guys coming retired here, moving the stairs. Puking. I puked each implicit this place. And present with the blood, sweat and tears, my name's going up, too."

In the stands, schoolhouse administrators spun the Amazing Stories of Cam Jur...