Markus Wheaton Opens Up About Career-Ending Injuries and Life After Football

PITTSBURGH -- Former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Markus Wheaton was a name to watch coming into the NFL as a third-round pick. But those high expectations didn't turn into what many hoped, and a pile of brutal injuries seemed to have played a hefty role in that.

Wheaton spent four years in Pittsburgh as a third-round pick out of Oregon State in the 2013 NFL Draft. He recently dove into that journey, and the injury-ridden end to his NFL career on the Road Less Travel podcast, explaining just how severe and scary some of his injuries were.

Too many to count," Wheaton said when asked how many injuries he suffered, "Too many to count. There was a lot of surgeries on the back end. There was concussions, right? So my brain is a little messed up. I’m dealing with that day-to-day."

Wheaton didn't share the exact complications the injuries are causing him, but he did let it be known he has and is dealing with the aftermath of concussions. At Oregon State, he suffered a concussion during a collison while trying to catch a ball. He played the following week for the Beavers, adding brain injury troubles to a long-list of other body ailments he suffered.

Wheaton's career included a shoulder sprain, torn groin, torn labrunm and a hamstring strain, but he said the most frustrating injury came in 2017 with the Chicago Bears.

Wheaton was released by the Steelers and ended up in Chicago, where he suffered an injury to his pinky. When he discovered he needed surgery, it became almost a breaking point for the wide receiver.

"I go to catch a ball, and my pinky finger, the bone comes out of my pinky," Wheaton said. "And I look at my hand and my pinky’s off to the side. There’s blood, and I take my glove off. And I’m like fuck. And it freaking ate me up."

He spent two years with the Bears before being released. He finished his career with the Philadelphia Eagles, but didn't make it through the season, being cut in September of that season. Now, at 34-years-old, he's focused on life outside of the football, and still trying to manage the effects of playing.