‘Bigger than football’: The inspiring comeback story of Northwest star L.J. Phillips

He was too strong, too big, too tough of a running back to ever be hurt.

L.J. Phillips played football like that every time he stepped on the field, including last fall in the Class 5A quarterfinals when the Northwest star running back tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on the first carry of the game.

The season-ending injury devastated Phillips, who was less than 65 yards from breaking the program’s single-season rushing record, held by current NFL running back Breece Hall.

“I’ve been walking with a football in my hand since I was born,” Phillips said. “Football is all I know really. I know people say to have a ‘Plan B,’ but that’s hard for me. I always want football to be a part of my life, so when it was taken away from me, that was a reality check.”

Less than 10 months following surgery, Phillips not only was ready for the start of his senior season, the No. 24 L-Train, as he’s known in Wichita junior football circles, looked as dangerous as ever.

While Northwest lost 53-41 at Bishop Carroll, Phillips turned 17 carries into 167 yards and two touchdowns in his debut. After he scored the first touchdown, Phillips took a knee in the end zone in an emotional moment to savor the feeling that pushed him through his rehabilitation.

“It’s been a journey and a spiritual journey,” Phillips said. “I had to thank the Lord for blessing me to still be out here because I saw first hand how the game can be taken away from you at any time.”

‘The best L.J. Phillips he’s ever been’

Northwest has earned the reputation of producing the finest running backs in the City League, pumping out 1,000-yard rushers on an annual basis.

In the last decade alone, Deron Thompson and Julius Bolden have received scholarships to play NCAA Division I football, while Breece Hall is set to make his NFL debut on Sunday for the New York Jets.

Steve Martin has coached all of them and he adamantly believes L.J. Phillips is the next major college football running back recruit from Northwest.

“I’ve coached some pretty good running backs in my 11 years and L.J. is as good as any of those guys,” Martin said.

Phillips has been a natural at running back since he first started playing tackle football. He was so big as a first-grader his coach initially pegged him as a lineman, but changed his mind the first time he saw Phillips cradle the ball and take off.

It was at that moment that Mark Johnson, the father of K-State pledge and Maize quarterback Avery Johnson, knew he had found his running back for his youth football team, the Wichita Bears.

“L.J. has been terrorizing the Wichita City League since he was in first grade,” said Johnson, who coached Phillips from first to eighth grade. “When we needed to pull through, we would hand the ball to L.J. Everyone knew who No. 24 was.”

The combination of speed, power and grace he displayed that first year of playing football was the same blend he used last season when he rushed for 1,982 yards to earn all-state honors in Class 5A.

Phillips, listed at 5-foot-9 and 200 pounds, was beginning to attract interest from major Division I programs before the ACL tear, an injury that has many college coaches playing the wait-and-see game with his recovery.

Martin believes Phillips answered any lingering questions in his season-opening performance. He showed he still can be a punishing runner on a 17-yard run where he broke five tackles and carried the pile forward and he showed he still has his explosiveness, even with a brace on his left knee, when he shed a would-be tackler and out-run the defense for a 72-yard touchdown.

“All we’ve been hearing from the Power 5’s is, ‘We want to see what he can do post-recovery,’” Martin said. “Well, you saw it on Friday night (Sept. 2). He looked like the same player who took that first carry against Kapaun in the playoffs last November.

“Now I think we’re going to see the best L.J. Phillips he’s ever been.”

‘I had no choice but to give my all’

Away from the football field, Phillips usually carries a sense of positivity that is contagious. He always tries to put a smile on other’s faces.

But following the season-ending injury that effectively ended Northwest’s playoff run, Phillips struggled to find that positivity. He was consumed by an inner battle of playing the ‘What if?’ game.

What if he would have stayed healthy? What if Northwest would have won? What if he had a chance to play against Maize, the team that featured many of his little-league teammates from the Bears?

“That was definitely a low point for me,” Phillips said. “I just wasn’t really talkative. I didn’t want to speak to no one. I kind of just shut down. It was tough talking to people and expressing my feelings.”

When Phillips was at his lowest, he was picked up by those around him.

The Northwest football coaching staff were with him every step of the recovery process, from Martin’s unwavering belief in Phillips’ determination to come back stronger to defensive coordinator Marc Marinelli’s constant words of encouragement to assistant Josh Sims being there as someone to talk to.

Phillips said he also was motivated by the doctor who performed the surgery and his physical therapist, both of whom were optimistic he could once again be a star football player.

“I knew I had to do everything I could to put in the work because I had so many people who believed in me,” Phillips said. “Whenever you have that many people tell me they believe in me, I really had no choice but to give my all for them.”

His father thinks his son came back stronger from the injury because of the determination he had when the game he loved was taken away from him.

“He always had the love for the game, but it’s like that old saying: you never miss the water ‘till the well runs dry,” Lendon Phillips said. “When he thought the well was dry, he missed it terribly. And I think he has a stronger mentality now because of that.”

Phillips channeled that motivation into investing the time necessary in the weight room to fully rehabilitate himself from the knee injury. He was cleared by doctors in June and the work ethic he displayed in order to be ready for his senior season has been awe-inspiring, his coach says.

Martin believes everyone can find inspiration from Phillips’ comeback story.

“We’re talking about perseverance, hard work and determination and taking something bad and making it good,” Martin said. “L.J. is our team’s biggest leader and our guys will go to war for him because of what he did this offseason.”

‘It’s bigger than football’

To understand how L.J. Phillips has maintained his humility while being a star running back for most of his life, you only need to know the man that he was named after: his father.

From an early age, Lendon Sr. made sure Lendon Jr. knew that the amount of touchdowns he scored did not equate to how he should carry himself in life.

“I made sure he knew that he puts his pants on just like everyone else: one leg at a time,” Lendon Sr. said. “You don’t need to look down on nobody just because you’re better in a sport. That’s no reason to have a big head. Nobody wants to see a big head.”

So when L.J. kept scoring touchdowns, he never lost focus of the bigger picture. While football may have been the No. 1 priority in his life, he abided by how his father taught him to treat others with respect, regardless of status.

That’s why when L.J. was playing Pop Warner football and was at a practice where the coach continued to make a player run wind sprints by himself for a mistake, L.J. joined him so he didn’t have to run by himself.

“He’s a hell of a football player, but L.J. is an even better kid than he is a football player,” said Johnson, his youth football coach. “He is a giving person and he cares so much about his teammates.”

Even though the injury prevented him from playing another sport last school year, L.J. still joined the boys basketball and baseball teams at Northwest to support his teammates.

He has also embraced a mentorship role this season with a pair of talented freshmen running backs at Northwest in Deuce Bohannon and Gericho Moore.

“We had our first (junior varsity) game on Monday and L.J. was there and I think he got more excited watching them score than he did when he scored himself,” Martin said. “You can’t help but root for a kid like L.J. Phillips.”

To L.J., that’s the only way he knows how.

“People have this narrative of me that I’m this star football player and I don’t believe that at all,” Phillips said. “I’m just a normal guy. My dad has always preached to me to be humble. He never lets me get a big head. I just want to make everyone laugh and try to put a smile on people’s faces because you never know what someone is going through at home.”

There’s a lot at stake this season for L.J., as the Grizzlies play host to Heights in a City League clash on Friday.

Not only is he chasing a 2,000-yard season and the single-season rushing record at Northwest that evaded him last year, but he’s also trying to prove himself worthy of a Division I scholarship.

But no matter how many touchdowns he scores this fall, L.J.’s comeback story will always be a success to his father.

“It’s bigger than football,” Lendon Sr. said. “I know he’s good at football and all of this stuff, but it’s always been about his character to me. I’m proud of his character and the young man that he has become. That’s my homie right there.”