James Conner returns to McDowell for annual youth football clinic
McDowell graduate James Conner, who’s about to start his ninth season as an NFL running back, held a youth clinic at his alma mater on Saturday.
Arizona Cardinals running back James Conner briefly played quarterback during his June 28 youth football camp at Gus Anderson Field.
The position switch didn’t go well for the 2013 McDowell graduate.
Conner’s receivers dropped most of his downfield passes. Those often caught were when he used an underhand, horseshoe-pitching motion.
That was fine with Conner, though, given he was tossing balls to second- and third-graders. They were among the hundreds of students between the ages of seven and 17 who participated in the NFL veteran’s fourth annual camp at his alma mater.
Conner’s decision to resume the event at the stadium where he once starred was an easy one.
“It’s the community (that keeps) coming out and showing its love,” he said. “It’s a blessing to have a great turnout every year.
“Why stop a good thing?”
‘A young man’s game’
Conner, 30, is weeks away from his ninth NFL training camp. He experienced his first four with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who picked the familiar University of Pittsburgh back during the third round of the 2017 NFL draft.
Conner, who signed with Arizona as a free agent in 2021, is about to triple past the league’s average career length of 3.3 seasons.
Even more notable, he’s twice surpassed 1,000 rushing yards in a season at an age when most current backs are past their prime or retired.
Connor was 28 when he surpassed that four-digit milestone for the first time (1,040) with the 2023 Cardinals. He followed with last season’s total of 1,094.
Even Conner briefly paused as he pondered his near-decade of NFL employment.
“Time flies,” he said. “As the years go on, you realize it’s a young man’s game. And if you’re not at your best, they will get rid of you.
“Hard work is still the basis of it all. Showing up, taking care of your body and trying to live right.”
Conner goes into the NFL’s 2025 season with 5,970 career rushing yards and 59 touchdowns between the Steelers and Cardinals. Those totals include his 3,668 yards and 37 scores in an Arizona uniform.
Conner needs 196 yards to surpass Jim Otis for third place on the Cardinals’ all-time rushing list. Ten more rushing touchdowns would give him 47 and dethrone Ottis Anderson atop that category.
Watch: Titusville’s Abigail Colie wins the James Conner Courage Award
Watch the compelling story of Titusville’s Abigail Colie, who won the James Conner Courage Award.
Still willing to help
Conner’s camp occurred at the end of the same week the Northwest Pennsylvania High School Sports Awards were presented at the Warner Theatre. He was the main speaker for the 2024 ceremony, which was held at that same venue.
Conner also learned that night the ceremony’s annual courage award, presented to a District 10 student who’s persevered through a physical a hardship, would bear his name going forward.
The decision was based on Conner’s surviving Hodgkin’s lymphoma during his college career at Pitt.
That means he understands what Abigail Colie’s current plight is like.
Colie, a senior for Titusville’s girls basketball team, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s this past December. Although in the midst of recovery, she was able to attend the ceremony and receive the award.
Conner said he continues to hear from others who have experienced what he did, or remain inspired by background to persevere through their personal challenges.
“Unfortunately,” Conner said, “cancer’s not going anywhere or the hard times from it. I tell (people) you’ve just got to keep your head up and keep pushing through.”
Contact Mike Copper at mcopper@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNcopper.