‘If I Practice, I Want the Reward’: Cam Jordan Explains Why He Risked Losing His Eye Against the Steelers in ’22

Cameron Jordan went into the 2025 season tied with Cameron Heyward of the Pittsburgh Steelers as the longest-tenured player on any team in the NFL, having joined their respective clubs in 2011. He’s been a pillar on the New Orleans Saints’ defensive line for a decade and a half now, appearing in 235 games. A true iron man of the modern NFL, Jordan is as tough as they come.

But that also means Jordan must be pretty darn good. And he is. This past week, during the Saints’ upset of the Carolina Panthers, the All-Pro DE reached the 125-sack milestone, becoming just the 20th player to officially hit that mark. He’s also second in sacks among active players, behind only Von Miller. Jordan’s consistency is remarkable, having missed just two games in his entire career.

One was due to COVID during the 2021 campaign, and the other was due to an orbital bone fracture. Both pretty good reasons. But what illustrates Jordan’s toughness, grit, and love for the game was the fact that he played through the fracture after getting poked in the eye early in a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022. He spoke about the injury on the Fitzmagic and Big Whit podcast this week.

“I broke the orbital bone and whatever. But I finished the game! It happened in a Steelers game, it happened in like the second quarter, I broke it, I went to the tent. They were like, ‘Can you see?’ I was like, ‘Yeah!’ Went back out there, I just played like this [closes one eye]. I was like, I’m good. Locate the quarterback with two eyes, lock on one,” Jordan recalled.

Despite suffering a literal fracture in his face, the former Golden Bear missed just one game. He successfully pushed to return the week after his absence against the Rams. His reasoning is one that any football player, from peewee to the NFL, can relate to: if you put in the hard work at practice all week, you want the “reward” of getting a chance to make some plays in that week’s game.

“So the next week they’re like, ‘No you have a risk of losing your eye.’ I was like, ‘No, I had a risk of losing my eye playing in this last game.’ I’m like, alright, whatever dude. If you’re telling me you’re hiding my pads, that’s the only way I’m not playing. Because in my mind, I’m playing each and every time. If I’ma go through practice, you want the reward right.”

Obviously, being an NFL iron man doesn’t just bring success and toughness, but a lot of great stories as well.

Jordan wants his milestone sacks to come against the best

Interestingly, Jordan also talked about how each of his major sack milestones has come against a notable QB. His first sack back in his rookie season in 2011 came against that season’s Rookie of the Year and future NFL MVP, Cam Newton. His 100th? None other than the GOAT himself, Mr. Tom Brady.

During that divisional matchup in 2021, Jordan actually sacked TB12 twice after having taken him down once during the earlier matchup that season. While speaking with Fitz and Whit, he talked about how he didn’t want to have his 125th sack, likely his final major milestone, come against some no-name like Gardner Minshew.

He got his wish, as he wrapped up former No. 1 overall pick and Heisman winner Bryce Young (the 50th QB he has said hello to in the backfield) for No. 125 this past Sunday.

Jordan revealed that he has sacked 50 different QBs in his career. That includes 23 on former Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan, which is an NFL record for a defender on a quarterback.