Bergen Record: "Tough times make son, father closer"

Posted: Nov 10, 2012

Bergen Record: "Tough times make son, father closer"

Bergen Record sports writer Jeff Roberts recently caught up with Bentley offensive lineman Joe Morra, whose football career was in question following a serious broken leg last December. Weeks after his injury, his father was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Both are now doing well, and their story is in this article that appeared in Friday's paper and online at www.northjersey.com.

BY JEFF ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER, The Record

Joe Morra could stomach the sight of his own leg only once.

Then he promised himself he would never look again.

He glanced down at it, bent crookedly to the right beneath his knee — "Joe Theismann-like," according to his father, John — after being tackled Christmas Eve in an annual pickup football game with friends.

The excruciating pain was bad. But the sound — the sound of the Bentley right guard's tibia and fibula snapping clean through — that might have been even worse.

"I wouldn't say it was a gunshot, but [my friends] said it was a very loud bang noise," Morra said.

And all the Oradell resident could think as he lay on a field in agony was: "I'm never going to play football again."

"The first words out of Joe's mouth was, 'Dad, it's over,' " John said. "And he had tears in his eyes."

For the rest of the article, please click here.