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Travis Roy and Grace
#TravisRoy #TravisRoyFoundation #BostonUniversity
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#TravisRoy #TravisRoyFoundation #BostonUniversity
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Travis Roy and I have one thing in common... Our collegiate athletic careers were shattered by serious injuries during our freshmen year of college. I’m, however, still alive...
I was tackled, during a September 1991 football practice, and, as a result, my left collarbone exploded... An ambulance was called to the practice field and I found myself at what is now called the Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, New York.
An X-ray showed that my collarbone had been broken in half...
I was the slowest receiver on the Ithaca College football team.
I had, on the other hand, made a spectacular catch on the play that ended my football career... I was eventually caught from behind, after running approximately 60 yards, and dumped on my shoulder by an embarrassed defensive back. I was too slow to make it to the end zone…
I remember, vividly, the doctor asking me if I was going to play professional football... I was so proud that I was asked!
My 18-year-old ego almost got the best of me because there was scuttlebutt that my coach, Ken Hammel, had recently gotten a tryout with either the Giants or the Jets after having a great career as a Bombers receiver but, considering my lack of speed and my newly wrecked…
…shoulder, I answered the doctor with a sheepish “no”.
A “yes” might’ve landed me on the operating table that night... The proposition of surgery seemed too scary to me so, maybe, I wasn’t a tough football player but, beneath the helmet, a coward.
I wonder, to this day, if I should’ve accepted the specter of surgery because my left shoulder, 29 years later, is fucked…
I remember when Travis Roy got hurt... It was all over the Boston news.
Travis, a bit younger than me, had gotten hurt, like me, early in his collegiate athletic career... We had, similarly, both competed at Independent School League (ISL) academies; I had attended Thayer Academy and Travis, later, had attended Tabor Academy.
Travis’ story, for me, hit too close to home...
I knew, however, that our injuries were not the same... Travis Roy’s spinal cord was broken in half; a collarbone is not a cervical spinal cord. He never had the chance, like me, to decide if surgery was his best option; surgery was his only option...
I’ve lived 29 years of life since my injury and, although I feel it every day, I am grateful that it wasn’t worse... I’ve lived, in many ways, a normal life.
Travis, on the other hand, lived the last 25 years of his life in a wheelchair which was, ostensibly, filled with grief, pain and regret.
I didn’t know Travis but I do know that he’s put a much bigger footprint on the world than I ever hope to make... I am proud of Travis Roy because he carried himself, despite his physical handicap, with grace.
The word “grace”, by the way, is a special word for me; it’s the name of my oldest daughter...
I wish I could change those 11 seconds for Travis... I wish that I never knew his name. I’m sorry that he’s dead...
I wish I could change those 11 seconds for Travis... I wish that I never knew his name. I’m sorry that he’s dead...
Consider a donation to the Travis Roy Foundation ( https://www.travisroyfoundation.org/ )...">https://www.travisroyfoundation.org/">...
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