Dion Jordan had a difficult time hiding the disappointment while his Chandler Wolves suffered a blowout loss to Chandler Hamilton Friday night.

Hamilton undefeated in rout of Chandler

But it was only a football game, and since Jordan spent the previous 28 days in a hospital with third-degree burns following an Oct. 6 accident trying to siphon gas from a car, there was much more for the senior to soak in.

Friday was his first night out in the real world in three weeks. Jordan — who checked out of a Scottsdale hospital for good Saturday morning — was allowed outside to watch Friday night’s intracity showdown.

He surprised many in the Wolves’ locker room before the game, as well as a few friends from Hamilton.

“That got me in the stomach,” Hamilton running back Covaughn DeBoskie said.

Jordan went out with Chandler’s team captains for the coin toss and returned to the sideline to chants of “Dion! Dion!”

Jordan watched most of the game in his No. 8 jersey on a golf cart, occasionally standing to see downfield behind two and three rows of teammates, each of whom wrote “#8” on their hands.

“More than anything, it feels different now than being on the field,” he said. “I’m supposed to be out there with my pads making plays. It’s real hard.”

There have been surgeries, skin grafts and three hours a day of rehab for Jordan, who welcomes the range-of-motion and strength exercises as something other than lying in a too-short hospital bed watching bad daytime TV.

One-third of his body is bandaged, as are his hands, and he walks with one crutch.

“When something happens like that your life flashes before your eyes,” Jordan said. “I’d get up and walk around (the hospital) and look around at how blessed I was.”

Any athletic activity is still a few months away, although Chandler coach Jim Ewan said none of the schools who have offered a scholarship to Jordan (Arizona, Arizona State, Boise State, to name a few) have flinched in their offers.

A few Wolves teammates stopped by to see him during the game, but his return to the sideline couldn’t help the Wolves to victory Friday, but the playoffs begin next week, and if Jordan can’t play with ’em, he can at least join ’em.

“It was kind of weird and exciting to walk out there. I miss this,” he said. “I’ll be at every game from here on out.”