Along with testing the stability of his leg, the starting tight end from Springboro was trying to prove to his coaches that he was sound enough to go back onto the field and help his team battle the New England Patriots, who had the lead the entire second half.
Ballard had been injured a few minutes earlier when he had made a cut away from the ball and crumpled onto the field in pain, immediately grabbing his left knee as teammate Hakeem Nicks rushed over and tried to comfort him.
The scene was discomforting déjà vu, not only for his Springboro family sitting up in the stands at Lucas Oil Stadium, but for those closest to him back home — like his former high school coach Rodney Roberts, now the athletics director and football coach at Franklin High — who were watching on TV.
In mid December, Ballard had partially torn the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) in his other knee against the Washington Redskins and had missed the final two regular-season games.
“When I saw him go down this time I just felt heartache,” Roberts said Monday night. “I was heartbroken.”
Ballard eventually was helped off the field and attended to on the sideline by medical personnel, who, in the first half, had done the same with backup tight end Travis Beckum, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament and will need surgery.
So Ballard forced himself to his feet and, with the NBC cameras trained on him, he tried to run. He managed a couple of strides, began to hop on one leg and then tumbled into the outstretched arms of a Giants staffer before rolling and landing awkwardly on his back, his face tightened in pain as he again grabbed at his knee.
“You have to admire his courage for trying,” NBC analyst Cris Collinworth quietly told the worldwide TV audience.
“You certainly do,” echoed play-by-play man Al Michaels.
As he watched the scene unfold, Roberts feared the worst: “When I watched the replay of his injury and saw him go down without contact, as a coach you know those are the worst.
“Then watching him try to run on the sideline and seeing him crumble, I’ve never seen that from Jake Ballard before. I had a sick feeling in my stomach.”
That feeling was fully realized Monday night when he got a text message from Ballard. What had originally been reported as a meniscus tear was not that at all said Roberts:
“He told me he had torn his ACL.”
That means surgery and extensive rehab in the offseason. At the same time he’ll also be trying to strengthen the other knee with its partial PCL tear.
For Ballard it’s yet another hurdle in a young NFL career that reached promising heights this season as he became a forceful blocker while also winning quarterback Eli Manning’s trust and amassing 43 catches, 647 yards and four touchdowns — more than he accumulated in all four years playing for Ohio State.
Coming out of OSU in 2010 — because he was rarely used as a pass catcher his final two seasons — he was not drafted and finally joined the Giants as a free agent, only to be cut twice, picked back up and put on the practice squad.
He finally made the active roster and played in one game last season.
Then this past August, when starting tight end Kevin Boss left for Oakland, he pushed himself to fill that void, became the Giants starter and won the praise of the entire team.
“The guy is a difference maker,” Giants punter Steve Weatherford said before the Super Bowl. “There was a big question going into the season — what do we do at tight end — and Jake Ballard answered it.”
After the PCL injury, Ballard did all he could to get himself back on the field. A couple days before the Super Bowl he explained that mentality:
“Unless it comes down to the point where you can’t run and you’re hurting the team, you’ve got to get yourself on the field even if your leg is barely hanging on.”
That’s what he had tried on the sideline and when he collapsed, he knew it was time to go to the training room. But once there he was beside himself because he couldn’t follow what was going on out on the field where Manning was leading the Giants on a final-minutes, 88-yard drive that culminated with the winning touchdown with 57 seconds left.
“There was no TV, no phone, no nothing,” he’d explain after the game. “All I could hear were cheers, so I had one of the doctors run out there and he came back in going nuts so I knew we had scored at the end.”
As soon as the final Hail Mary pass of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady fell incomplete in the end zone and the Giants had secured the 21-17 victory in Super Bowl XLVI, the celebration began.
Eventually Ballard made his way back to the field on the crutches and stood alongside Beckum, also on crutches.
“Winning the Super Bowl is good medicine for the injury,” Ballard said.
At the time he didn’t know the extent of his injury, but the injury won’t affect one thing, Roberts said.
“Jake’s a world champion now,” he said, “but those of us who know him know he’s been a champion long before this.”
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