The drive from Barbe High’s football field to Cowboy Stadium is just over 2 miles down McNeese Street.

If you make all the traffic lights, it should take about 6 minutes. Even jogging it can be done in 20.

For Brayden Adams, however, the trip took much longer than that. It was one which lasted three painful years, physically and emotionally.

Even when he finally got a chance to play on the Cowboys’ turf, the linebacker wasn’t fully himself. He was more in recovery mode, playing catch-up for lost time due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

“It wasn’t always easy to keep going,” Adams said. “I just kept playing, kept working.”

Injured back before COVID-19, Adams wasn’t cleared to fully play until Week 3 of last fall. He wound up appearing in seven games, recording 16 tackles while playing a limited role on the McNeese State defense.

It wasn’t the immediate impact he had hoped to make when he signed to play for the Cowboys in 2019.

“It was a long time before playing,” Adams said. “A lot of things happened.”

That’s an understatement.

Adams had to deal with more than an injured knee in working his way back on the field. There was the missed year of COVID and then two hurricanes that battered and bruised his home town.

And we haven’t mentioned that this spring Adams is playing for his third head coach in as many seasons, fourth if you consider when he was first recruited by McNeese.

Yet he has stayed, in part because of the injury and in larger part because it is home.

“A lot of people in town went through more than me,” Adams said. “I feel a little bit responsible to help build things back up if I can.”

Now he wants to help rebuild the McNeese football program and his own career.

Adams has made an impact this spring. Now healthy, the 5-foot-10, 206-pound junior is a symbol of the Cowboys. He’s been down, hurt and maybe even a little forgotten, but he’s still standing ready to fight again.

“I like that guy,” first-year head coach Gary Goff said about Adams. “He has done a great job this spring. He has stepped up as a leader. He cares.”

In Saturday’s scrimmage, Adams stood out. He had a pair of tackles for loss, including a jaw-rattling one on senior running back Deonta McMahon.

“Brayden has been all over the field making plays,” Goff said. “We have had a lot of guys who have not gotten a lot of playing time who are stepping up. He’s one of them.”

While admitting watching and waiting for his turn was never easy, it was something he had to get through.

“You have to stay focused,” Adams said. “You have to be where your feet are. You can’t worry about things you can’t control.”

One thing Adams could always control was how he went about his business. Chaos may have surrounded but he was always workings, learning. He watched how fellow linebacker Kordell Williams and all-American defensive end Isaiah Chambers went about their work.

“I try to follow them,” Adams said. “I mold my game around Kordell. “I sit with him in the room and watch and listen. I have learned so much from him especially.”

Adams said he loves the new defense, calling it “perfect for linebackers to play in.”

However, he knows this is the spring and he has to make sure he’s ready for the fall.

“I feel great and I feel like I’m developing and learning every day,” Adams said. “I can’t wait to be out there healthy and playing.”

That will make the long trip from a short distance worth the wait.