GREEN BAY, Wis. – Jake Dolegala had college scholarship offers and NFL aspirations. Then, during the third game of his senior year at St. Francis High School in the Buffalo suburb of Hamburg, N.Y., the strong-armed quarterback’s dreams suffered a crushing setback.
On the third drive of the game, one of Dolegala’s passes was tipped and intercepted. He tried to make the tackle but “completely whiffed on the guy.” That was the least of his problems. He had torn his labrum.
“I’m laying there and my shoulder’s just kind of hanging,” Dolegala, signed last month by the Green Bay Packers, recalled recently.