Vikings QB JJ McCarthy rallies support as life coach Greg Harden battles serious health complications

JJ McCarthy just cannot catch a break in recent times. He already has to deal with a meniscal tear that ended his rookie season before it even began - the first-ever first-round quarterback to miss his whole rookie year due to injury. And now, one of his mentors growing up is fighting for his life.

On Thursday, McCarthy's alma mater of Michigan announced that Greg Harden, a renowned life coach and former assistant administrator at its athletic programs, had been admitted to the hospital on Monday after some complications, the nature of which it did not disclose.

The Minnesota Vikings quarterback instantly sent his prayers, sharing a past photo of himself with Harden and a copy of his book Stay Sane in an Insane World: How to Control the Controllables and Thrive on his Instagram Stories:

"Please pray for my main main (praying hand and heart emojis)"

JJ McCarthy prays for Greg Harden (Screencap via JJ McCarthy/Instagram)

Michigan's statement can be seen below:

No other update on Harden has come forth as of this writing.

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JJ McCarthy was "extremely shocked" by season-ending injury

The Vikings organization has been mostly unsuccessful at developing drafted quarterbacks since Daunte Culpepper. The late Tarvaris Jackson, Christian Ponder, and Teddy Bridgewater all had only mixed successes.

Their most successful players at the position during that span tended to be free agent signings - Brett Favre in 2009, Kirk Cousins, and even Case Keenum in 2017.

That spell was supposed to end with the drafting of JJ McCarthy, but of course, his knee injury scuppered his dream of immediately proving himself a future elite quarterback. Speaking to the media last week about his reaction to it, he said:

"Extremely shocked. I thought it was a bruise. I thought at most it could've been a strain somewhere. But when they told me it's a pretty serious tear, yeah, I was taken away by that," McCarthy said per NFL.com.

After the initial diagnosis, he had two options: shorten the meniscus and give himself a potential path to return late into the season, or fully reconstruct it and sit out. The latter option was chosen, and he described the feeling as a "kick in the balls".

Still, it's not all bad. McCarthy believes that sitting out and watching Sam Darnold play will allow him to better and more comprehensively learn the game, potentially setting himself up for a monstrously productive debut:

"The biggest learning process is my routine throughout the week. Let me solidify what it's like to go through the week, and with the benefit of not having pressure to perform on Sunday. So, by the time I do play, whenever that is, next year, the following year, whenever it is, I'll be ready, and it won't be like this is my first game."

Darnold would impress in his Vikings debut, throwing for 208 yards and two touchdowns from 19 of 24 attempts completed in a 28-6 win against the New York Giants.