A mountain rises above sandy red dirt not far from Jim McMahon’s home in Arizona. There are saguaros, jagged rocks, maybe some rattlers. But no trail.
As he drives by, McMahon tells his friend, “I can’t wait to climb that.”
The idea would be ambitious for any 64-year-old, let alone for one who recently came close to losing his right leg.
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At some point during a 15-year NFL playing career — he’s not sure when — McMahon broke his right ankle. Doctors kept telling him he didn’t. By 2021, the ankle bone had grown — the size of two golf balls, he says — and McMahon could barely walk. About two and
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