WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A recent moment, among many, that provided Sam Hartman with a small dose of perspective came earlier this month, during Wake Forest’s week without a game. In a practice, Hartman attempted to hurdle a teammate and absorbed a discomforting blow to his shoulder. It wasn’t anything serious, though the pain still resonated hours after it happened.
For a little while Hartman, Wake Forest’s fifth-year quarterback, hurt. Yet it was a joyful kind of hurt, one that brought a sense of gratitude. After everything he’d experienced, including the most recent trauma of a blood clot that jeopardized his season before it began, he was thankful to have the chance to play at all, pain or no pain. He knew everything could’ve easily been much different.
“It’s still kind of that thing of like, well, I’d rather be doing this than stabbing myself in the stomach with a blood thinner twice a week,” Hartman, 23, said recently on a picturesque Tuesday, with the oranges and yellows just beginning to turn Wake Forest’s campus into a fall painting. He thought about his journey to this point — disappointments on the field, the personal tragedy off of it.
