Former Notre Dame OL Joey Tanona comes out of medical retirement, transfers to Purdue
Call Joey Tanona, a former Notre Dame offensive lineman who missed the last two seasons in medical retirement, Michael Jordan. He’s back.
“I’m back,” is, of course, the way Jordan came out of his first retirement stint with the Chicago Bulls back in 1995. That’s the exact wording Tanona used to start his social media message announcing a transfer to Purdue on Friday.
“I want to thank everyone who was involved in making this possible,” Tanona continued. “My former high school coaches who broke their backs trying to make something like this possible. I love you to everyone who never gave up on me throughout this struggle. I will always remember you.
“It’s time to go to work, though, because I owe it to you all to put only my absolute best on the field. I love this game; I love competing and, more so, competing to win. I am excited about what the future may bring, but for now, I can only say is let’s go win some ball games and boiler up!”
Notre Dame is scheduled to take a trip down to Purdue on Sept. 14 of next year, so the Fighting Irish will reunite with their former teammate in West Lafayette in 10 short months.
Tanona never played a down in a Notre Dame uniform. He arrived in South Bend as an early enrollee in the class of 2022. He was the no. 10 interior offensive lineman coming out of high school that year per the On3 Industry Ranking. With 6-5, 295 size coming out of Zionsville (Ind.) High School, the hope was Tanona would quickly become a Saturday option at guard.
That hope was thwarted by a severe car wreck that left Tanona unable to play football. Tanona was concussed, and Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman described the accident as “a pretty bad one.”
“He kept trying to come back,” Freeman said on Aug. 5, 2022. “Mentally and physically, he was not in a place where he was ready to play football. He decided to medically retire. He will still be here to get his degree. That’s the greatest thing about this place. We can guarantee one thing — that at some point, the game of football is going to be over. But you have a chance to get a degree from this university and you a chance to be successful. He’s in good spirits.”
It’s unclear if Tanona obtained that degree in two full calendar years at Notre Dame, but it is clear he has fulled healed and is ready to play the game he loves again.
