Everything below are quotes from the article:
His dad played quarterback, a high school star that didn’t get the chance to play at the next level because of his size. His grandpa won a high school state championship before playing at Georgia.
Then the entire Montana team cleared the sideline to surround and support their quarterback. When a referee threatened Montana with a flag, receiver Keenan Curran said that they could throw the flag if they wanted but the team was going out to support its brother.
Phillips took an ambulance to the hospital, where he tried to watch a little bit of the Griz game as he waited for x-rays. It was too difficult to watch, so he switched to the Tennessee game, which he joked was even harder to watch.
The verdict of the x-rays came in. Phillips broke his fibula, the smaller of the two bones in the lower leg, in three different places. He ruptured all of the ligaments in his ankle. He also dislocated his ankle, but they put that back into place on the field.
The Missoulian posted a photo showing the injury on its website and Instagram. Reese saw the photo and started crying. Phillips checked with the Missoulian Griz beat reporter Amie Just, who argued that the photo shouldn’t go up and refused to Tweet any photos showing it. Eventually he got on the phone with editor-in-chief Kathy Best.
“I actually called them and I talked to Kathy (Best) and I was pissed, I was really mad,” Phillips said. “I understand as a journalism student if it bleeds it leads, I get that that was the storyline, but I felt disrespected.”
Best said she talked to Phillips about removing the photo. It was taken down from Instagram but left on the site. She said it was left up because it was in the context of other stories and columns, and depicted the game’s key moment.
Sparks and his girlfriend created the flag, getting the materials together and then sewing on the maroon number 11. He brought the flag with him when he came to visit, keeping it a secret from his little brother.
The homemade No. 11 flag, created by Phillips' older brother Brock Sparks, that Keenan Curran will carry onto the field before every Griz football game this season.
Photo courtesy of Brock Sparks
He texted Curran during the middle of the week to see if anyone could carry the flag out of the tunnel. The receiver took it on himself to carry the flag, and also helped keep it hidden from Phillips before the game. He has now carried the flag out at three games and will continue to all season.
Moving forward, Phillips is unsure if he wants to pursue a medical redshirt, which would allow him to play another year. He hasn’t been given an exact timetable for recovery, but hopes to be able to put pressure on his toes at two months. After that, he is hoping that in seven or eight months he will be cleared. But even then, he knows he won’t be the same player he was.
If he returned to Montana, he would likely be the backup to Jensen. He could always try to go somewhere else, but said that he loves Missoula and wants to finish here. There is only one thing that could get him to return.
“I would like to walk off the field on my own, that is the only reason I would come back, I just don’t really know if it’s worth it or not,” he said.
