Juan Thornhill's Positive Attitude is Paying Off
As Kansas City Chiefs then-rookie safety Juan Thornhill began to grow into his role in the Chiefs secondary, the 24-year-old saw his season come to an early conclusion, but that didn’t stop him from supporting his team.
In the final game of the season, against the Los Angeles Chargers, Thornhill suffered a torn ACL and was placed on the injured reserve, ending his season before the postseason began.
Thornhill recorded five passed defended, three interceptions and one touchdown in 16 games last season. He also tallied 58 tackles with 42 solo takedowns. Opposing quarterbacks were 13-for-28 against the former Virginia Cavalier in his rookie year.
During a video conference with reporters Friday, Thornhill discussed his injury and the positive mindset he publicly took after the news and into his rehab.
“With the ACL injury, it’s very stressful, if I’m being completely honest,” Thornhill said. “I was talking to [safety] Tyrann [Mathieu] about the two ACL surgeries that he had, and he said the main thing is to be positive. That was the first thing that I wanted to do was just be positive throughout this whole process. If you’re not positive, it’s going to slow down your healing process. I just wanted to stay positive and lift up my teammates as they were going through the playoffs. I didn’t want to be that guy who was a cancer in the locker room that they always heard from. I just wanted to be there and lift them up.”
Thornhill’s positivity has paid off, as on Wednesday he was activated from the physically unable to perform list and practiced for the first time with the team since his injury in late December.
The safety praised the Chiefs’ training staff for getting him ready to take the field again and, although he doesn’t know when he’ll be ready to go “full,” he said it felt good just to be back out on the field.
“Throughout the whole rehab process, [Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance] Rick [Burkholder] and [Assistant Athletic Trainer/Physical Therapist] Julie [Frymyer] did a heck of a job,” Thornhill said. “I came back from Dallas after my surgery and we pretty much jumped right into it. We had to get that range of motion, build up the strength, and once we got that, I started to get a little bit more mobile on the field.”
As he started to progress, Thornhill kept to himself. His teammates knew the rehab process was going well but didn’t know how far along he was or when Thornhill would practice.
So on Wednesday when Thornhill put on the pads, it was greeted with surprise.
“I randomly just threw on my shoulder pads and showed up one day and they were like, ‘Oh!’” Thornhill said. “They were shocked but it seemed like they were really excited to see me move. [Defensive Backs] Coach [Dave] Merritt and [Defensive Coordinator] Coach Spags [Steve Spagnuolo] seemed like they were really excited as well.”
Thornhill has continued to work his way into practices even at some points practicing with the first team. As the days before the first game of the season dwindle, Thornhill said his passion for the game has never been greater.
“It was a great feeling to be out there,” Thornhill said. “The thing is like I said, with me not being out there it just made me really hungry. I have never felt this hungry before. I was hungry coming into the NFL but with me not being able to play in the playoffs, I feel like I let my team down and I can’t let myself fall back. I need to pick up where I left off and take off. Hopefully, I can help my teammates get back to the Super Bowl, and hopefully, I can play in this one.”
