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We don't normally do this for the Rival Report, but today there is only one article being highlighted for the lead space instead of several on the same topic. This is because the one article from Ricardo Lockette is that good, that endearing, and that emotional that it is the only article that needs highlighting here.
For those of you that haven't heard about Ricardo Lockette's story, he is a former Seattle Seahawks player who had an absolutely terrible, career ending injury in 2015. He was a special teams blocker when he turned right into a player from the other team who had a perfect storm type of terrifying hit. The hit left Lockette shaken to the core and on death's door, and that isn't even an exaggeration or hyperbole.
The jarring hit left Lockette temporarily paralyzed with his vertebrae severely damaged to the point that any wrong movement and he could have died. He would have died had the doctors on the field not handled their job perfectly, had the EMT's not stabilized him exactly how they needed to, or if a teammate had grabbed Lockette to try to help him up without knowing how damaged he was.
Lucky to be alive, Ricardo Lockette has penned an article in the Players Tribune about his experience. It is an eye opening window into the life of an injured football player. We get desensitized to these injuries as football fans, because it's just part of the game after all. Except that these are real people, with real families, and sometimes these injuries can be life altering.
Lockette's daughter was in the stands the day his football career came to an end. His 10 year old daughter had to watch as her father lay motionless on the field, get loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher, and had to wait in the hospital until she could finally see him. This is a child watching from the stands as one of the people she loves most in the world, a person who seemed like Superman to her, lay injured and literally at risk of death over a game of football.
If you only read one article from today's Rival Report, read this one. You will not be disappointed.
"Am I About to Die?" | The Players' Tribune
It was terrifying. I couldn’t hear the crowd. I couldn’t hear my teammates. That’s when I knew it was bad.
Other stories from around the AFC West
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San Diego Chargers
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Kansas City Chiefs
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Other stories from around the NFL
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Like many Americans who have been stopped in their tracks by the video of the shooting death of a Louisiana man being detained by police last night, a number of NFL players are processing some raw emotions right now.
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