MOST INSPIRING NFL SPEECH EVER – Inky Johnson
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*Subtitles in Spanish*
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Inky Johnson suffered a terrible accident that crushed his dreams, but that never stopped him from living life to the fullest and taking care of all of his family as he promised himself.
I said “I can’t move. There’s a shock going through my whole body. I can’t feel anything man.” I still remember the day I was in the film room watching film and I was watching the California Bears and my defensive backs coach Larry Slade came in the room. He said “Inky Johnson, I got some good news for you.” I dropped the clicker and I said “Coach, what is it?” He said “All you have to do is play these next 10 football games. You’re an automatic multi millionaire.”
I ran out of the room. I got on the phone. I called my mother and my grandmother. I said “Listen, after this season our lives are about to change forever.” Little did I know our lives were really about to change. The first game we come out playing against California Bears. I get an interception, we shut them down, we get the victory. Second game, we’re playing against Air Force. It gets late in the game, we found ourselves in a dog fight and I approach to tackle like I approach any other tackle and the way I’m approaching it, either I’m gonna knock you out or you’re gonna knock me out. I’m 165 pounds. I can’t play with anybody. But at the point of contact, when I hit this guy, something different happened that had never happened to me before in my life.I hit him and it seemed as if every breath in my body left. My body went completely limp. I fell to the ground and I blacked out. I looked at the doctor because I couldn’t feel my right arm. They had poked me with all types of needles. Inky can you feel this? Can you feel it? I couldn’t feel a thing. They took me back, they ran a CAT scan, and they rolled me back into my room and I’ll never forget it.
All in about a 15-second timeframe, I was laying near my bed. My father, he went to take a step in and he looked at me. He said son, I can’t do it. He walked out. My mother, she came in. She was running. She kissed me on the forehead. She said a prayer. She said Ink, everything is gonna be okay and she ran out. As soon as my mother stepped out of the room the doctor rushed in from the opposite side and said hey, get in here we gotta rush this guy back to the emergency surgery. He’s about to die. I said what? My mom just told me everything is about to be okay. He said son, what happened, you have busted up some [inaudible 00:01:59] artery in your chest. You’re bleeding internally. We have to rush you back and take the main vein out of your left leg and plug it into your chest in order to save your life.
When I woke up from recovery the same doctor was standing over me. He said Inky, I have some good news and some bad news for you. I said you got some bad news for me after telling me I was about to die? I’m still alive. How bad can it get? I’m still here. He said the good news is son, we saved your life. I said thank you sir. He said the bad news is, you have nerve damage in your right shoulder. You probably can never play the game of football again in your life. I said doc, no disrespect man, but I’m eight games away. I’ve been working for this ever since I was seven years old doc. There’s no way. God, not now God. Let me make it the NFL so I can help my family first. We missed meals. There’s no way. I never cheated. I never cheated myself. I gave everything I had to it and I respected it. I never cheated. There’s no way that my career can be over. I said send me up to the Mayo Clinic.
After several visits, I’ll never forget, this is when reality set in. It was me, my mother, and my father in the room and the doctors came in. They said Inky Johnson, here’s the deal. They said son, we hate to tell you, but your arm, it would never be the same again, your hand, it would never be the same again. Son, you can never play the game of football again. He said son, here are your surgery options. We can take the muscle out of the back of your left leg, plug it into your right arm, but there’s a possibility that you’ll be left with a weak left leg and a weak left arm the rest of your life. Or we could take a nerve out of your left arm, reroute up into your chest, down into your right arm, but there’s a possibility that you’ll be left with two weak arms the rest of your life, or we would take a nerve out of your left rib, reroute it up to your chest, down into your right arm, but there’s a possibility that you’ll be left with a braething problem and a weak right arm the rest of your life. By the way, tell us what you wanna do in the morning.
Best example of a guy who never gives up.
