If 2024 has not been the desired fresh start you were hoping for, don’t worry and take Mecole Hardman as an example of how quickly life can change. He caught 15 combined passes for two different teams during the 2023 regular season. In the playoffs, he only had two receptions and was not even targeted in the AFC Championship Game. However, when the Kansas City Chiefs needed him the most, he had his best game of the season and made, perhaps, the most significant catch in franchise history.
Before the Super Bowl, Hardman had only one game with 50-plus yards receiving since Week 9 of the 2022 season. The day after he had six catches for 79 yards and a touchdown, he started experiencing osteitis pubis, an inflammation of the pubic bones that kept him hospitalized for 10 days.
Hardman didn’t return to the Chiefs lineup until last year’s AFC Championship Game, where he caught two passes for 10 yards. He was inactive for their Super Bowl victory against the Philadelphia Eagles. After spending four seasons with the Chiefs, Hardman became a free agent and signed a one-year, $6.5 million contract with the New York Jets.
In the two preseason games, he caught four passes for 24 yards. Following Aaron Rodgers’ season-ending injury, Hardman managed to make one catch for six yards on five targets with the Jets. After a Week 6 win against the Eagles, they traded him back to the Chiefs for draft picks in 2025.
This was undoubtedly a low point in Hardman’s career. As a second-round pick out of Georgia in 2019, he attracted little attention in free agency and was traded back to the team he left. Hardman was a highly regarded high school recruit, but by his fifth NFL season, his career seemed to be in jeopardy.
During Super Bowl LVIII, Hardman made two crucial plays. The Chiefs’ longest play in the first quarter was only 10 yards, and they failed to score any points. Down 3-0 early in the second quarter, Patrick Mahomes connected with Hardman for the longest play of the game. Mahomes threw a pass that split two defenders and landed perfectly in Hardman’s hands at the 49ers’ nine-yard line. If Isiah Pacheco hadn’t fumbled the ball on the next play, the 49ers could have been at a disadvantage for the remainder of the game.
Hardman only caught one more pass before overtime, which was for two yards in the third quarter. Since it was a 3rd and 8 situation, the Chiefs had to punt on that drive. When big plays were needed later in the game, Mahomes relied heavily on Travis Kelce and his own running ability. Mahomes made the right decision, as anyone would have trusted their athleticism and Kelce’s exceptional hands.
However, if the other criticized Chiefs receivers hadn’t stepped up in the fourth quarter and overtime, the 49ers could have won their sixth Super Bowl Championship. When the Chiefs capitalized on an errant punt return, it was Marques Valdes-Scantling who caught the 16-yard touchdown pass on the following play.
Noah Gray, Justin Watson, and Jerick McKinnon all made crucial plays during the drive that ended with a game-tying field goal. In overtime, after Valdes-Scantling made a mistake that cost yards, Mahomes went back to him to regain those yards and more. Rookie Rashee Rice had a significant third-down conversion on that drive, and Pacheco gained substantial yardage both as a rusher and receiver. Then, after Kelce converted a first down at the 49ers’ three-yard line, Hardman made the play of his football career that will be remembered forever.
Football hadn’t been going Hardman’s way since his hospitalization over a year ago. A disappointing free agency led to his return to the team he tried to leave for better opportunities. Throughout the preseason, regular season, and playoffs, Hardman caught a total of 21 passes in the 2023 season. In Super Bowl LVIII, he made two of the most significant catches in league history.
The new year is still young. Fat Tuesday is still a day away, and the clocks won’t spring forward until March. These first 42 days may feel like an extension of a disappointing 2023 for some, but stay on track. You may have been underestimated or disregarded, but that’s not the end of the world.
Global warming and uncontrolled capitalism may eventually lead to that inevitable fate, but that’s society’s fault. People can bounce back from a challenging 15 months. Just look at Mecole Hardman. A person who was recognized as one of America’s top athletes as a teenager went from the hospital to a one-year contract to the Super Bowl moment of the decade. His turnaround in 2024 has begun, and there will be others. The question is, do you want it?
According to the Source deadspin.com