If you’re a regular reader of my blogs for USA Football, you know that I did write stories each of the last three weeks.  What you may not know, unless you follow me on social media, was that I wrote all three of those blogs from a hospital room. I'll get to what happened shortly, but suffice it to say that writing about football helped me, in a small way, not lose my mind. 

Anybody who knows me is well aware of how much I love football and how much it means to my family, but my love for the sport never really came from actually having played football. As a child, I always went to Jets and Giants games with my father and watched games on television, but aside from having a catch with him or friends, I didn’t play the sport.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I was playing a little game of two-hand touch football with Bradley and Jared is when I got carried away. That little kid that never played football now had two boys who did, so I thought it was time to have a little fun. I played neutral quarterback for both of my boys and when Jared had the ball I called for a flea-flicker and went out to catch a pass.

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I caught the ball, started to run, and…. suffered a broken hip.

It was painfully obvious at that moment, as well as almost a month into my recovery, that I should probably stick to letting the professionals, my kids and others who participate in youth football play this wonderful sport. There’s a reason why I wound up talking and writing about football, and I think it’s going to be safer for me to keep it that way.

I love watching Bradley play tackle football and Jared play flag football, and it brings so much joy to our whole family.   We do a lot of football related family activities like going to Jets games and on trips to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That has always been enough for me, but for a few minutes, I thought I could turn back the clock and be a 12 and 8-year-old again.

But at the age of 51, I’m retired from playing football.  I’ll always have a catch with my kids…I’ll never say no to that!  But my competitive juices will have to be fulfilled by playing my kids in Madden.

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There are two reasons why I never played football as a kid and they’re not necessarily connected. 

When I was young, I was diagnosed with Osgood Schlatter disease, a frequent cause of knee pain among children between the ages of 9 and 16. There was probably no way I would ever pass a physical to play football, but there was something else preventing me from playing. I didn’t know it then, but I know now that my mother would never let me play because she’s still not really on board with my older son, Bradley, playing tackle football. 

So, my love for football grew by watching my beloved Jets at Shea Stadium and Giants Stadium while also developing the dream to be a sportscaster. I figured if I couldn’t play football, I could talk about it. I’ve been lucky enough to carve out a nice career in sports media so I’ve been able to be around the sport I love, but never played.

As it turns out, the woman who I fell in love with also loves football. When my wife Sheryl and I welcomed Bradley into the world, we became a football family because Bradley started playing tackle football at a young age. Jared took a little longer to get into football but now loves it. 

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So, we are a football family with two players and two fans. I wouldn’t have been able to get to the point I’m at now without my family. They came to see me in the hospital every day and that meant the world to me, and it’s a huge relief to be home to continue my recovery. 

My kids somehow feel responsible for what happened because they asked me to play. Now they don’t want to go back to the place where I got hurt - a place we go to frequently as a family. But as I’ve been telling them, as well as others, that’s just nonsense.

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When I’m able to walk without a walker, and that should be this fall in the middle of football season, we’re going back to that spot and I’m going to bring a football. When I get to the spot where I got hurt, everyone will take their places from that exact moment and I’m going to walk across the goal line to finish the play.

And that will finish my football playing career. No more recapturing my youth or trying to make up for lost time. My time will be spent watching my kids and the Jets play with my wife, having great football experiences and continuing to talk and write about football. 

I really do love football. I got hurt playing it, but it’s going to help me get better. 

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Peter is a sports anchor for the CBS Sports Radio Network, FOX News Headlines 24/7 and WCBS 880 Radio in New York. His son Bradley will be playing middle school football on Long Island this fall while his younger son Jared plays flag football. Peter, his wife Sheryl and the boys are busy cheering on the New York Jets when they’re not at a youth football field.