Marcus Freeman has a big heart. He just never knew that it would cost him his dream.
Last April, Freeman patiently waited until the fifth round of the NFL Draft to hear his name called. With a professional career on the horizon, the former Ohio State linebacker had achieved something he had worked toward for years.
“That I had a chance to play in the NFL was a great feeling,” Freeman said. “A dream come true.”
One year later, that dream is over.
Freeman bounced around the league during his rookie campaign. The Chicago Bears drafted him with the 154th overall pick, but released him a week before the start of the regular season.
Freeman caught on with Buffalo and then Houston, but both teams let him go.
Although the Huber Heights, Ohio, native struggled to find a permanent home, teams continued to call.
But when Freeman met with doctors in February for a physical before joining the Indianapolis Colts, his career path was altered forever.
Doctors discovered that Freeman had an enlarged heart valve of the left ventricle.
“They said they couldn’t pass me and they said that they’re very sure that no one else in the NFL will pass me,” Freeman said.
Freeman started at linebacker for the Buckeyes for three seasons. He was named second-team all-Big Ten during his last two seasons in scarlet and gray.
But in a matter of seconds, a man who said he felt completely healthy had to call it quits.
“I was devastated,” Freeman said. “Football is something I’ve done for many years and I was devastated that I couldn’t play the game anymore. With this heart condition, it’s bigger than football. You need to make sure you stay on top of it. That was the deciding factor that that was the end of my playing days.”
Freeman said that doctors never speculated on what could have resulted had the heart issue not been uncovered when it was.
“They did say that one of their former athletes had it and they didn’t catch it in time and he had to get surgery in Indianapolis, so they said they were glad they caught it,” Freeman said. “But even talking to some of the trainers here, they said probably more people have it, it’s just having the technology and the money to run those tests to find out who has enlarged hearts.”
Former Bears defensive end Gaines Adams died in January from cardiac arrest. He was found to have an enlarged heart. Just days later, Southern Indiana basketball player Jeron Lewis died with a similar heart ailment.
Freeman felt a sense of relief knowing his condition was detected before it was too late.
“They didn’t really get into detail about what could’ve happened, but they said it was dangerous,” he said. “I’m glad they found out before something bad happened and they found out that way.”
Never could the 24-year-old have imagined that he’d be mapping out his post-playing career so soon. But once he agreed with doctors that his days anchoring defenses were over, he immediately targeted a homecoming at OSU.
“He didn’t pout about it,” said James Laurinaitis, Freeman’s former teammate at OSU and current linebacker for the St. Louis Rams. “He went right to the people he needed to go to continue what he wanted to do.”
Freeman returned to Buckeye football this spring, joining some of the players he suited up with just two years ago. But instead of punishing running backs with fellow linebackers and former teammates Ross Homan and Brian Rolle, Freeman remains on the sidelines – as a coach.
“I’m currently the defensive quality control,” Freeman said. “You do a lot of work off the field, study a lot of film, you have to help the coaches out. I’m really working directly with [linebackers] coach [Luke] Fickell and helping a lot with the linebackers and just being a support system.”
Despite being just two years removed from leading the OSU defense, Freeman wants the current crop of Buckeyes to see him in a different light.
“You have to be able to communicate as a coach now,” Freeman said. “You’re not player to player, it’s coach to player. And that’s the first thing I wanted to do and establish is that I’m a coach.”
Having a big heart might have cost Freeman his career, but could be a blessing in disguise for the young linebacker, Laurinaitis said.
“He’s comfortable with it,” Laurinaitis said. “He can’t control the size of his heart. I told him that now he can tell his wife that he has an abnormally big heart and she should be thankful.”
Though the first chapter featured an unforeseen ending, Freeman remains determined to ensure that the next part of his career maintains its pulse.
“When you’re playing, you want to reach the ultimate goal of being in the NFL. You want to be a Super Bowl champ, MVP, or whatever you can be,” Freeman said. “Being a coach, I’m young but obviously I have goals that are extremely high. I want to be a head coach one day. I want to be an athletic director one day. I want to do it all. That’s obviously my goals.”
“Now, will they all be reached? Who knows? But as long as you set them high, if you don’t quite reach those goals, you’ll still be set pretty well. So, I set my goals extremely high and hopefully one day I’ll be able to reach them or get really close.”
