The term "blood, sweat and tears" is cliche and often overused.
But for UF defensive lineman Javier Estopinan, it's so much more.
It's the completion of goals. It's taking what you've been given and making something better.
It's his life story.
The blood comes in the form of three season-ending ACL surgeries in five years as a Gator.
"We supported him the whole time," said Lazaro Estopinan, Javier's father. "We see him pushing every day and working hard. Twenty-four hours after his third surgery, he committed to coach Urban Meyer that he would play next season. That's something to see how much he loves football and loves the Gators."
The sweat is from each of those painful rehabs during the sweltering months of spring and summer when he could have given up.
"It's in his makeup," said Joe Mira, who coached Javier at South Miami High. "There's no quit in him. I was concerned for him going through those injuries, but I was never surprised that he tried to come back. He's just a tough guy. You won't find a tougher guy."
But it was his heart that wouldn't let him quit, that didn't let him actually shed any tears. Because, like another overused cliché says, everything happens for a reason.
"Obviously, no one wants to get hurt," Javier said. "But I wouldn't change anything from what's happened to me and what I've learned from fighting through these injuries."
Fighter
Fighting is something Javier knows a bit about.
He clawed his way back to game shape after his ACL surgeries.
He recorded a 45-0 record and a Class 3A championship his junior year at South Miami High as a wrestler. Javier was making his first comeback after a torn meniscus kept him from earning that title a year prior.
Maybe it's his success as a wrestler that has made it easier for him to twist, flip and grapple his way back into game shape after his injuries.
He is admittedly an overachiever when it comes to football. Wrestling is what came naturally to him.
"I actually think I was a better wrestler," he said. "But I just loved playing football. I didn't want to give it up."
Javier didn't start playing football until 10th grade. He spent most of his time following in the footsteps of his older brothers Jose and Gabriel, who were distinguished wrestlers.
Javier decided to take up football as a way to improve his skills on the wrestling mat. It took some pleading and several conversations with his father before Javier was allowed to put on his pads.
Lazaro wasn't too fond of American football and felt he should continue wrestling like Gabriel, who wrestled with the University of Minnesota from 1998-2001. Javier finally convinced Lazaro to let him play football by saying it would make him a better wrestler.
Instead of football making him a better wrestler, wrestling actually made him a better football player.
Mira, who is now retired as a head coach from Miami-Dade County Public Schools and is currently the offensive coordinator at Westminster Christian School, has seen a lot of talented players walk through the halls of South Miami High.
But Javier, who was the No. 3-rated linebacker in the state, was a different type of player; he had something extra, something special.
"We had a lot of linebackers come through at South Miami," Mira said. "Some really good linebackers, but I still say there's no one like Javi. They didn't all have the same energy level, the same intensity. Javi was an All-American, and his toughness was at a different level."
After Javier left South Miami for UF, Mira showed incoming linebackers his highlights to show them the correct way to play the position.
Today, he's setting a different standard. Defensive line coach Dan McCarney, who has been coaching for 30 years, says he has never seen a player recover from three ACL tears.
While there won't be a Javier Estopinan tape highlighting the proper way to play defensive line, his blood, his sweat and his tears have made a difference.
"What a great legacy he's left of overcoming a lot of adversity and obstacles," McCarney said. "It's hard enough to go through one ACL, but three of them. I've never been around it. He'll be used as an example for years and years at Florida."
New Surroundings
Javier comes from a tight-knit family. The type that is deeply involved in the lives of its members, and the type where decisions are made as a unit.
Needless to say, Javier's decision during the recruiting process was life-altering not only for him but also for the entire Estopinan clan.
When Javier narrowed his choices down to his top two - UF and Ohio State - Lazaro decided to give his take on the matter.
"I told him that I understand that you want to go away and grow into a man, but we are a middle-class family," Lazaro said. "We can't afford to fly up every weekend to watch you play in Ohio."
In a sense, the decision was made for him. Not that it was a tough one. Javier had a good rapport with then-coach Ron Zook and felt comfortable with the winning tradition at UF.
No, the hardest part for the Estopinans wasn't picking where he would go to play. It was Javier actually leaving.
He had never been away from his family for an extended period of time. And when Lazaro and his wife, Alina, were making their way back to Miami, the emotions finally sprung out of them.
"He had never been away from home before and now he was leaving," Lazaro said. "We cried all the way from Gainesville to Ocala."
But Javier's biggest challenge in his freshman season wasn't homesickness. It was a team in turmoil.
The Gators had underachieved to consecutive five-loss seasons in 2002 and 2003, and following a 38-31 loss to Mississippi State on Oct. 23, 2004, UF was once again on the path to mediocrity.
Zook was fired two days later, which sparked outrage from many of Javier's teammates. Some even threatened to transfer.
Javier held firm.
"I came to the University of Florida because they have a great program," he said. "I knew that they were going to get a really good coach to come in."
Once coach Urban Meyer entered the fray, Javier noticed the differences immediately.
"A lot of us didn't play hard before," he said. "I was a freshman, so I didn't know the difference. I just played the same way I did in high school. When (Meyer) came in I realized how you had to play to win football games."
One Last March
The Gators have won enough in the past four seasons to make Javier and his fellow seniors among the most successful classes ever to storm onto Florida Field.
The group has a collective record of 40-9 and is 14-1 against the Southeastern Conference East over the past three seasons.
Estopinan avoided getting nostalgic about his last time marching out of the south end zone. In fact, he said he hasn't thought about it much.
"I don't know what it's going to feel like," he said. "I think it may be like the first time I ran out there."
Lazaro, on the other hand, expects the emotions to well up once again. He watched Javier storm out onto the field for the first time in 2004, he's seen him contribute to a championship team, he's seen him work back from injuries, and he's seen him graduate.
But that moment on Saturday may top all of them.
"It's going to be something emotional," Lazaro said. "We see how he's changed over five years. He's working on his master's degree, and he's become a man. It's going to be emotional. Five years flies so fast."
They say that time flies when you're having fun. But for Javier, it was more than just fun - it was work and it was life.
He'll have his master's degree in building construction next December. But before he gets there, he has to get through this December, earn another SEC championship and then head back home in January, where he could win his second national title.
After that, he'll hang up his jersey and pads for good, with none of his blood, sweat or tears wasted.
"He's as high-character, tough guy as I've ever been around," Meyer said. "He's got his whole life worked out. That's why he came back."
That's why he kept coming back.
