Charlotte, NC – Large receiver Hunter Renfrow Going from 185 pounds to 150 pounds last year while being treated for an ulcerative colitis, which played an important role in its decision to move away from the NFL after being released by the Raiders of Las Vegas.
There was a section where the most recent member of the Carolina Panthers suffered seven consecutive days of 103 degrees fevers.
Renfrow, 29, wondered if he would play football again after 2022 and 2023 disappointing seasons.
“I felt so bad these two years, and I felt like I let my teammates drop so so,” said Renfrow on Thursday. “Because I had expectations. I just signed a new contract [in 2022]. I had a new coach staff for which I was going to be perfect. And I was just a failure.
“I said to myself: ‘guy, I know that I don’t feel good, but I don’t want to play football anymore. As, I don’t want to drop people. I just want to go here in my corner, do what I do, get into business.” “
Renfrow started to feel “weird” at the end of the 2021 season when he did the pro Bowl with a career summit of 103 catches for 1,038 yards and nine affected. He took a month off after the annual stars match because he felt “a little tired”, but did not think a lot about that.
He signed an agreement of 32 million dollars over two years with the raiders during the 2022 off -season, but by the training camp said: “I felt as badly as possible. ” It was during the difficulties that the former star of the neighboring Clemson was diagnosed with the chronic intestine.
“I do my best, even if my best was not good enough at the time,” said Renfrow, who is now back at 185 pounds.
RENFROW caught only 36 passes for 330 yards and two affected in 2022, then fell to 25 catches, 255 yards and no touch in 2023 and was released in March 2024.
He fell at 150 pounds in March and April from last year and had to make several trips to the emergency room because there was so much inflammation in his body. He started to feel better by July after tibial infusions and in September, his weight climbed up to 200 pounds.
“I hadn’t been able to eat for three years, and now I was eating everything under the sun,” said Renfrow.
He added that he was thinking of trying to join a team at the end of last season, but rather decided to wait for this year when he could “start with a team starting with the ota. ”
Renfrow started to feel fairly well in January to push his training sessions at the level that made him comfortable that he could compete. He went to Clemson – where he is best known for causing the winning touch with 1 second to play during the 2016 national championship match against Alabama – twice a week to work with the staff to format themselves.
“Now, I’m here,” said Renfrow, who signed a one -year agreement on Sunday with the Panthers, his favorite team growing in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. “And I’m delighted to play football again.”
Before that, Renfrow went to a few high school football games which also inspired his return.
“I said to myself:” guy, they have fun. This is what I want to do “” said Renfrow. “That’s what I was doing. I had fun playing this game. ”
So he signed with the panthers, hoping to add depth around 2025 in the first round Tetairoa McMillan (N ° 8 in total), 2024 piece of old round Xavier Legette (N ° 32), veteran Adam Thielen,, Coker Jalen and 2025 Sixth round choice Jimmy Horn Jr.
He is also delighted to work with the quarter-Arrière Bryce YoungThe first choice of the 2023 draft.
But above all, it is just excited to play football again.
“You have a lot of occurrences like this accumulating over time,” said Renfrow. “You say to yourself:” Dude, I want to go out in a different way if I will go out. “”
