One Tough Buc

Not many young men who play football at Rutgers University expect to play at the professional level. They attend a good school in a major conference, but as with most schools, an overwhelming majority of its football graduates end up going onto careers outside of major professional sports. Eric LeGrand always believed he would someday be signed by an NFL team. Wednesday, his beliefs turned into reality.

 

During a game against Army in 2011, Eric LeGrand made a tackle on a special teams play that knocked him to the ground, unable to move. He was rushed to a hospital, and the diagnosis was that he was paralyzed from the neck down. His football career was over.

 

To imagine the pain that LeGrand suffered as a result of the injury he endured is enough to make any viewer cringe. But to fathom the mental and emotional pain that came from coping with an immediate and severe life change is something that not even the most empathetic among us can grasp.

 

Yet through the pain, Eric LeGrand has kept his spirits high, and has inspired millions of people with his huge heart and enormous smile. His tenacity is only outdone by his pure joy.  His physical therapy has progressed, he now has feeling in his legs, and doctors believe that he will someday walk again under his own power.

 

Eric’s dream of being an NFL star may have faded after his accident, but his former coach at Rutgers, Greg Schiano, never let his own dream of calling him his player again die.

 

And if you know Greg Schiano, you know he always gets what he wants.

 

Schiano became the head coach of the Tampa Bay Bucaneers this year, and on Wednesday made that dream a reality, signing Eric to an NFL Player contract with the Bucs. Although LeGrand will likely never play a down of football in Tampa, Eric will use his newly found gift for speaking to serve as a Bucaneers sportscaster.

 

Eric LeGrand could have let his injury get the best of him. He could have allowed his broken dreams consume him, and dwell in self pity the rest of his life.  Instead, Eric turned every challenge he has faced upside-down and has not let the pain get the best of him. Where he finds despair, he brings hope. Where he sees a dead end, he creates an opportunity. And where people saw in him only a weakness, he has found in himself a fountain of strength. In other words, he is one tough Buc.