Imagine competing in a triathlon. Consider the swim of 2.4 miles, the bicycle ride of somewhere around 112 miles and then the running of a 26.2-mile marathon — not to mention the training required to survive the experience — and just about everyone would answer immediately: no, thanks. After all, there’s a reason triathlons are considered arguably the most rigorous athletic event a person can go through.

Former SMU offensive lineman Joey Fontana will undertake his first triathlon this weekend despite an injury that left some wondering if he would ever run — or even walk — again (photo by SMU athletics).

So modify the ordeal to be a “sprint” triathlon, which reduces the legs of the event to a more humane — barely — 300-meter swim (that’s 12 laps in the pool inside SMU’s Perkins Natatorium), 12.4 miles on the bike and finally a run of 3.1 miles.

But before answering, consider making the decision to train for the event after enduring a knee injury so severe that doctors predicted a future with no running, no jumping and perhaps even no walking without a brace.

With that as a backdrop, the response to the idea of training for a triathlon likely would be much more emphatic.

But that’s exactly what former SMU offensive lineman Joey Fontana is planning to do. Three years ago, in one of the Mustangs’ final practices before SMU headed to Hawaii, where the Ponies would whip Nevada in the Hawaii Bowl, Fontana’s true freshman season was ended when a teammate rolled into his left leg, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), lateral collateral ligament (LCL), posterior collateral ligament (PCL), the meniscus and the posterolateral corner in the joint. Fontana was told his playing days — and for all intents and purposes his days of doing anything athletic — were over.

Since his injury, Fontana has endured numerous operations on the knee and to help heal the nerves in the leg. But while the rest of the Mustangs are getting some sleep Sunday after hosting Memphis Saturday afternoon, Fontana will be taking part in his first sprint triathlon in Keller, Texas.

“I wanted to compete in something,” said Fontana, who was told in November that he was medically disqualified, thereby officially ending his playing career at SMU. “I was told I’d never walk again, I’d never jump — now I’m doing everything I did before.”

Fontana put on a little weight while battling the depression brought on by the end of his playing career, but since he started training for the triathlon over the summer, he has shed more than 40 pounds.

“I had been told in November (2011) that I was medically disqualified,” Fontana said. “I was upset, and I took some time off. I went through the depression phases. But football ends for everybody at one point or another — for me, it just happened to end early. I put on some weight — I got up to 315 or 320. But in February, I decided to change. I decided that if I wasn’t going to be an offensive lineman anymore, there was no reason to look like one anymore.

“When I started (training), I would do a five-minute walk to warm up. Then I would jog for one minute and walk for a minute, in intervals. Now, I’m going for anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes, running eight minutes and then walking for 45 seconds. I run anywhere from 2.5 to 4.5 miles, I’m swimming 800-1,200 meters and biking 10-14 miles twice a week.”

What Fontana has accomplished to get to this point is as impressive as any accomplishment by any athlete. Modern medicine has advanced to the point where players come back from a broken bone or a torn ligament with relative regularity, but Fontana’s knee was annihilated. Instead of listening to the naysayers, Fontana now balances his classwork and his duties as an assistant in the SMU strength department with his own training. To those who know him, Fontana’s new athletic pursuit is anything but a surprise.

“Joey was always a physically competitive kid, but to do what he’s doing takes more than just strength,” SMU head coach June Jones said. “Training for something like a triathlon takes mental toughness as much as physical toughness, and he has the right mental attitude. When he was told he wouldn’t play again, I know he didn’t like it — nobody would. But he focused on a new goal and I have no doubt he’ll get it done.”

Running back Zach Line, one of Fontana’s closer friends on the team, echoed his coach’s thoughts about his teammate.

“It’s not surprising to me at all,” Line said. “When he got hurt, even as bad as it was, he was trying to come back and play. He didn’t want to be told he can’t do something, and when the doctors told him that, he was mad.

“He wanted to have a normal life, so doing something like this is right up his alley. He and Ben Hughes and I were summer roommates, so we know him pretty well, and whatever Joey’s doing, he’s always really focused. He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t just want to be around the team — he wants to prove that he can do what he sets out to do.”

In addition to his training regimen, Fontana hooked up with former SMU tight end Vincent Chase, who helped Fontana start using Advocare, which offers an array of health and wellness products and nutritional supplements, including some that reportedly help accelerate weight loss. In February, Fontana weighed 320 pounds; in mid-September, he was down to 278. “My goal is to get down to 250,” Fontana said, “and then we’ll go from there.”

Weight loss aside, the mere fact that he is planning to do the triathlon is nothing short of remarkable. Fontana has not set specific goals about finishing in a certain time or a specific place within the pack of competitors. To him, completing the event will mark a monumental victory.

“I have no goal in mind other than to cross the finish line,” he said. “Being one of the bigger people in it, I don’t have a time in mind. Someone said that ‘success is defined by getting up one more time than you get knocked down.’

“I was told I would never walk again, that I’d wear a brace for the rest of my life. I have all the respect in the world for my doctors, but there was not a day since I was injured that I haven’t thought about playing again. When I think back now, I forget how bad it was. The mind blocks some stuff out, I guess.”

It wasn’t that long ago when a torn ACL meant the certain end of a season, and possibly even a career, for an athlete. Such an injury, Fontana said, seems almost minor by comparison.

“What I wouldn’t have given to ‘just’ have had a torn ACL,” he said. “Maybe that’s why I’m doing this — not just for myself, but for everyone who was told they can’t do something, they can’t walk, they can’t run.

“(Training has) been an awesome way to lose weight, but that’s not what this is about. It has given me a sense of ‘I’m back.’ If I can finish this triathlon, I know now that I can accomplish any goal I set out to do.

“It’s not what you’re told you can do — it’s what you believe you can do.”