Ryan Shazier was seriously injured in an NFL game. He has advice for Damar Hamlin
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin was discharged from a New York hospital on Wednesday, more than a week after suffering cardiac arrest during a game, to continue his rehabilitation at home.
Hamlin's doctors said he's on what's considered a "very normal" or even "accelerated trajectory" in his recovery, and has been walking, eating and undergoing therapy. It's not exactly clear what the road ahead will look like — but former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier has an idea.
Shazier was making a routine tackle in a 2017 game when he sustained a life-altering spinal cord injury that left him temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. He underwent spinal stabilization surgery, but even then, the prognosis was grim. Doctors gave him only a 20% chance of ever walking again.
While Shazier and Hamlin experienced vastly different injuries, their experiences have much in common: They both happened during a nationally televised Monday night football game, against the Cincinnati Bengals and even on the same field. And both players have fought to get back on their feet.
Shazier says he "pretty much had to relearn everything" one step at a time, from wiggling a toe to raising a knee, and those little victories kept him going.
"It was almost like receiving a scholarship to go to college. It was like going to Ohio State. It was like getting drafted in the first round," Shazier told Morning Edition. "These are things that people said I would never do and I was able to do them. And it was just an amazing feeling to be able to continue to progress."
Shazier's biggest moment of joy during his recovery came when he was able to do what he set out to from the start of his rehab: walk his wife down the aisle and dance at their wedding.
Shazier was on the path to possibly playing football again, but began to realize he couldn't move as fast or give as much as he would have wanted as a professional athlete. He announced his retirement from football in 2020, but still keeps up with the sport (he also launched a podcast series about sports comeback stories).
Shazier and his wife were watching the Jan. 2 game when Hamlin collapsed on the field, which Shazier called "a very tough moment for me."
"And just to see just the scare in everybody's eyes while they're on the field, to me it just kind of gave me flashbacks of what I went through," he said. "But then also it just scared me to see what Damar, his family and the Buffalo Bills were going to have to go through, dealing with his injury."
Shazier spoke with Morning Edition's A Martínez about his own injury and recovery, and what advice he would offer Hamlin now.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Interview highlights
On how his injury happened
I made this tackle a thousand times before, and on this tackle there was a receiver doing a drag race ... and unfortunately, he was running a little bit faster than I thought he was. And when I made a tackle, my head hit his hip, which caused me to fracture multiple vertebrae in my back and it caused me to have a spinal cord injury. ...
... I definitely knew something was wrong because I had a burning sensation in my back. ... You have misfortunes, but you just never expect that, hey, I'm going to get hurt to the extent where I would never be able to walk again. And when I got hurt, it was more of, "Oh, man, I'm hurt pretty bad, but I should be OK." And that wasn't the case.
On making incremental progress during a long recovery
My whole life I've been doubted, trying to make it into the NFL .... not even 1% of guys in the NFL make it to the Pro Bowl. So with me being blessed to overcome all those odds, I just thought about the same thing when it came to just dealing with my injury and how I had to deal with so many other injuries before, and it's just one step at a time. ... And that's what I call goals: just first downs, just short first downs. And then when you reach your ultimate goal, there's a touchdown. So every time I did something that was relatively good to me, not what everybody else thought, but what I felt was progress, I would call it a first down. And I just started looking more at the short-term goals and would try to build those, and they end up building into me being able to be where I'm at now.
On feeling like his retirement was letting people down
I remember I talked to my father and my mother and my wife and I was like "Man, I'm a failure. I'm sorry I let you guys down." And they looked at me and said, "Ryan, what are you talking about?" And I said, "I got hurt. I'm not able to play football at a high level." And my wife and my father and my mother all told me, "Ryan, playing football is a bonus. Being the man that you are is what we appreciate, what we love about you, not just because you can play football, you're not letting us down. The fact that you're overcoming this injury, the way you're overcoming it, we look up to you more than we ever did." ... One of my goals was to make it to the Hall of Fame. ... I thought that if I didn't reach the goal that I plan on reaching, I was a failure. But my family told me very quickly that that was not the case.
On the memories Hamlin's injuries brought back
It was just the pain I went through, the loss of the game that I went through, the emotions of just how I feel about football then, how I feel about football now, just about how his family is scared and they don't know how to react, they don't know what to do ... I was thinking about how my teammates looked when I was on the field. I was thinking about being at a hospital and I had so many doctors around me that I couldn't even see the wall. It was so many things that literally flashed by so fast that I can't even tell you just one thing.
On what he wants Hamlin to know
The biggest thing I will always tell anybody, first and foremost, is trust God and then also just have a positive mindset. ... And secondly, take it slow, because you just want to make sure that you're in the best condition for your health. You want to make sure that you're still able to be the guy that you want to be. So if it involves football, if it doesn't involve football, just take your time. Just make sure that you trust the doctors and ... You also have to trust yourself. You know what your body feels like. And push it as far as you can push it, but also understand when it's time to pull back as well.
Ziad Buchh produced this audio and contributed to the digital story. The audio was also produced by Adam Bearne and edited by Simone Popperl and Jojo Macaluso.
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Transcript
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin has survived an injury that could have killed him. But long after media and fan attention moves on, Hamlin will be working on his recovery. Ryan Shazier has some idea of what that road ahead could feel like for Hamlin. Shazier's spinal column was damaged during a routine tackle in 2017 when he played for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER: And Ryan Shazier, the leader of this Pittsburgh defense, is not getting up. And not to be an alarmist, John (ph), but I don't think anybody has seen his legs move at all.
MARTÍNEZ: Like Hamlin's injury, millions of people watched it live on Monday Night Football, and it also happened in Cincinnati on the same field where Hamlin was injured. Shazier took us back to that game, that play, that moment that changed his life.
RYAN SHAZIER: I made this tackle a thousand times before. And unfortunately, he was running a little bit faster than I thought he was, and when I made the tackle, my head hit his hip, which caused me to fracture multiple vertebrae in my back and caused me to have a spinal cord injury. I definitely knew something was wrong because I had a burning sensation in my back. When I got hurt, it was more of, oh, man, I'm hurt pretty bad, but I should be OK. And that wasn't the case.
MARTÍNEZ: At what point did you realize, uh-oh, this is going to be longer than just maybe getting injured and coming back in a week or two?
SHAZIER: I think it was more of a week and a half, almost two weeks. I was thinking of it more like a stinger. So for those who played football, a stinger is something that - you will hit somebody, and your arm feels like it goes numb, but you kind of get the feeling back.
MARTÍNEZ: But after almost two weeks, the feeling was not coming back. Doctors told Shazier's family there was only a 20% chance he would ever walk again.
SHAZIER: I pretty much had to relearn on everything, everything that you take for granted that involves your core to lower body - you know, using the bathroom, you know, walking up the stairs or being able to jog somewhere or just being able to get out of a seat, just learning all those things I had to learn all over again.
MARTÍNEZ: What was it like to just have these little victories, Ryan, like moving your toe or actually getting up on your own?
SHAZIER: Those moments were big to me. And it might not mean much to somebody else, but it means everything to you. And there were moments where I was just trying to raise a toe or lift my ankle or raise my knee. And for me, it was everything. It was almost like receiving a scholarship to go to college. It was like going to Ohio State. It was like getting drafted in the first round because these are things that people said I would never do, and I was able to do them.
MARTÍNEZ: In those initial steps, those first few steps in your recovery, what was the thing that brought you the most joy?
SHAZIER: The thing that gave me the most joy was to be able to walk at my wedding and dance at my wedding. We pushed back our wedding because I told myself I wanted to be able to walk down the aisle. I wanted to be able to dance with my wife with no help, with no resistance.
MARTÍNEZ: It took Shazier longer to accept that he could not return to playing professional football.
SHAZIER: It took me a while. It took me about two or three years because I was rehabbing, and I was getting a lot better, and I was on the path to possibly getting back to playing football again. But I was just starting to notice that some of my movements were a little bit slower than I wanted them to be. I wasn't able to run as fast as I wanted to be able to run.
MARTÍNEZ: Everyone has sometimes feelings of letting people down. Did you struggle with that, like maybe letting yourself down, your family or your teammates?
SHAZIER: I remember I talked to my father and my mother and my wife, and I told them - I was like, man, I'm a failure. I'm sorry I let you guys down. And they looked at me and said, Ryan, what are you talking about? And I was saying, I got hurt. I'm not being able to play football at a high level. And my wife and my father and my mother all told me, Ryan, that - playing football is a bonus. You know, being the man that you are is what we appreciate, what we love about you, not just 'cause you can play football. You're not letting us down. The fact that you're overcoming this injury the way you're overcoming it, we look up to you more than we ever did. You know, as myself, I thought I was a failure, but my family told me very quickly that that was not the case.
MARTÍNEZ: So let's get now to what happened to Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin. What memories came back? What kind of things were you thinking about when you saw the injury, when you saw what happened to him on that play against the Cincinnati Bengals?
SHAZIER: Man, that was a very tough moment for me because me and my wife were watching the game together, and me and Michelle were just discussing what was going on, and I'm like, man, this is crazy what's going on right now because the whole play itself, how Damar made a tackle that's a regular tackle that he's made a hundred times, and then, you know, he dropped to the floor and just to see just the scare in everybody's eyes while they were on the field - to me, it just kind of gave me flashbacks of what I went through. But then also, it just scared me to see what Damar and his family and the Buffalo Bills were going to have to go through dealing with his injury.
MARTÍNEZ: What kind of flashbacks?
SHAZIER: It was kind of everything in a quick flashback - you know, just the pain I went through, the loss of the game that I went through, the emotions of just how I feel about football then and how I feel about football now, just about how his family is scared, and they don't know how to react. They don't know what to do. I was thinking about how my teammates looked when I was on the field. I was thinking about, you know, being at a hospital, and I had so many doctors around me that I couldn't even see the wall. So it was just - it was so many things that literally flashed (snaps) by so fast that I couldn't even - I can't even tell you just one thing.
MARTÍNEZ: As you mentioned, Ryan, your injury is a lot different than what Hamlin went through with his heart. But I think there's a similar kind of road ahead for him. You've been down that road already. I mean, what's something that, if he were listening to you right now, you would tell him about the possible road he has ahead of him?
SHAZIER: The biggest thing I will always tell everybody, first and foremost is, you know, trust God, and then also just have a positive mindset. And secondly is just, you know, take it slow because you just want to make sure that you're in the best condition for your health. You want to make sure that you're still able to be the guy that you want to be. So if it involves football or if it doesn't involve football, just take your time. Just make sure that you trust the doctors. And you also have to trust yourself. You know what your body feels like, and then push it as far as you can push it, but also understand when it's time to pull back as well.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Ryan Shazier, former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker. Ryan, thanks a lot for sharing your story.
SHAZIER: No problem. Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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