“You can be anything you want to be.”
That phrase certainly seemed to be
ringing true for Eric LeGrand. He was average academically, never excelling in
any particular area. However, his passion and talent for American football had
gotten him a scholarship into Rutgers – one of the leading universities in
America. People there were bigger, faster and stronger than he was. However,
his hard work and determination led to him eventually becoming a starter for
the team, providing a valuable contribution to the team’s defence. There was
talk of him being drafted into the NFL, which would see him earn a minimum of
$500,000 per year.
Not bad for someone “average.”
However, on the 16th October 2010, his life would change forever.
Rutgers were playing a game against
Army in front of 30,000 people at Metlife Stadium, where two NFL teams play
their home games. As Rutgers kicked the ball away, LeGrand sprinted downfield
to try and make a tackle. He did. LeGrand collided with the ball carrier, and
it was immediately obvious something was wrong. He lay on his back, completely
still. As he was stretchered off the field, he tried to give a thumbs up
gesture to the crowd. He couldn’t.
“I thought I was going to die” LeGrand
recalls. “I thought that was going to be the end of my chapter.”
He was nearly right. He’d fractured
his C3 and C4 vertebrae, and needed emergency surgery to stabilize his spine.
The surgery was a success, but he was paralyzed from the waist down, with
doctors predicting that he’d never be able to breathe without use of a
respirator.
That wasn’t the way Eric was, and it
took him just six days before beginning to practice breathing independently. It
took him a week more before he regained some movement in his shoulders and
sensation throughout his body. Just seven months later, he had obtained
movement in his arms, and began tweeting pictures of him standing upright at
therapy. While all this was going on, he hadn’t forgotten about his education.
Amazingly, he began to continue his course online, as he would use Skype to
hear lectures three times a week. How does a 20 year old go from the prospect
of fulfilling his lifelong dream and a chance to make millions to the reality
that he may never walk again – and simply carry on with his life?
Well, that was just the way Eric was. When talking about losing the
ability to feed himself, he admits that “At first it was a little bit weird;
now I don’t care, I just want to eat the food” before breaking out into a big
grin. After the two and a half hours it takes him to get ready each morning, he
spends the next four in gruelling therapy – while smiling. He’s never once
looked around and complained about how bad he has it, or wished that the
accident hadn’t happened. He can’t change what’s happened. But he can change what
will happen next. His first public appearance came just over a year after the
injury, as he was set to go down the tunnel with the Rutgers coaching staff.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was about to head out into a blizzard. His mother
tried to talk him out of it. Not a chance. This was just “another thing” for
Eric. The occasion was voted “The best moment in sports 2011” by Sports
Illustrated.
When his college coach Greg Schiano
left for a job in the NFL, he made Eric’s dream a reality, and phoned him to
tell him that they’d be signing him. Despite being absolutely delighted, his
first thought wasn’t for him – he asked Schiano “Do you really want to waste a
roster spot on me? You could use that.” A month later, after attending the
team’s practices, he retired so that Schiano could have that roster spot open.
It came as a surprise to no-one that
his next career would be in motivational speaking. His talks always start with
the same line – “I believe that I’ll be walking all over this world soon.”
You can be anything you want to be.
