Football is one of the world’s most popular sports, but also perhaps the most dangerous. Injuries can happen at any time and any place, as Pittsburgh Steelers fans know all too well. Every Black and Gold fan is familiar with the story of Ryan Shazier, a promising young linebacker for the Steelers whose football career ended as a result of a tragic on-field spinal injury in Cincinnati. At the time, most people were less worried about Shazier returning to football and more concerned with him potentially never walking again. It was a terrible incident that thankfully ended happily, with Shazier regaining the use of his legs.
Recently, Shazier, as well as Dr. David Okonkwo, the Steelers’ team neurosurgeon and the man who helped lead Shazier’s recovery, spoke with the YouTube channel TheAthleteSpine about some of the behind-the-scenes details of his injury and recovery. First, Shazier talked about how he wasn’t even supposed to play in that game because of a lingering injury.
“I was actually not supposed to play in that game because, in the week before, I actually sprained my ankle on the last play or second-to-last play of us playing against the Green Bay Packers. We already had won the game and I got into a pile and sprained my ankle. So literally that whole week, I didn’t practice. Not one rep,” Shazier said about of the lead up to the Steelers’ game against the Bengals. “It was a game-time decision, and me and Coach [Mike] Tomlin and the staff just talked about it. I was like, ‘Hey, I think I can get through it.’”
In the game against Green Bay, the Steelers didn’t secure their win until there was only 17 seconds left on the clock, which just goes to show how often a person’s life can change in a matter of seconds in the NFL. Considering the following game against the Bengals came in Week 13, it’s no surprise Shazier pushed through the ankle injury to play. That late in the season, almost everyone is playing with some level of injury or pain, and players especially want to push through to play against rivals like the Bengals.
Shazier continues by breaking down the play where he got hurt, explaining that he had never, in his whole career, thought about how to tackle a person, except for that one play. In the moment, he thought about moving his head down, accidentally lowering it too far. The collision left him paralyzed from the waist down. However, even though his career was over, and he was in serious danger, his positivity never seemed to waver, as explained by Okonkwo.
“I’ll share one other thing about Ryan, which is that he had a smile on his face the whole time. He was never down. From the very get-go, his approach was to ask, ‘What do I gotta do?’ And he said to me, ‘Listen, I’ve won everything I’ve ever tried at life. There’s never been something that I’ve done on planet Earth that I haven’t figured out how to win. So I just need you to teach me the rules of this particular game because I’m gonna win this game too,’” Okonkwo said about what Shazier told him after he learned he may never walk again. “There was never the moments where he was despondent. It was always positive energy.”
It truly is remarkable to hear how, in the face of such loss, Shazier managed to persevere and not become negative or bitter. Giving up is easy, but to find the courage and gumption to spit in the face of all knowledge and reason and keep trying is true strength. Shazier decided not to let this tragedy define him, and now he has his own foundation that aims to help the treatment of people that suffer spinal injuries, giving them the same opportunities he had. What once was a story of tragedy has now become one resolve and resilience.
