Andrea Kremer’s poignant piece for NFL Media provided an indirect update on Ryan Shazier.

We have been purposeful in not reacting to every tidbit of news on Shazier, such as last week when his father said the Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker had feeling in is legs and believes his son can play football again.

We did not comment on videos from the hospital and pictures from the sidelines of practice that seemed to indicate Shazier did not have muscle tone or movement in his lower extremities.

We want to be respectful of Shazier and his family.


What stood out in the Kremer piece was the love his teammates have for him and their description of the moments after the Dec. 4 injury and their subsequent visits with Shazier.

By all accounts, Shazier has an unbelievable positive attitude.

And the report also inadvertently indicates he will need every bit of that in his recovery.

Our worst initial fears are seemingly being realized.


Shazier knew it immediately.

“I went out on the field to check on him,” teammate Mike Mitchell said. “As I got closer to him, I could see that he had tears in his eyes. … He was just like ‘Yo, I can’t feel my legs.’ ”

In Kremer’s report, Mitchell says the word we have been fearing.

“To watch this dude paralyze himself for us to try to win a football game,” Mitchell said, “how can I not go out and play as absolutely hard as I can?”


Said teammates Vince Williams: “He’s talking about how he’s going to get better, he already has a plan laid out. I’m just like, ‘Bro, can you move your toes?’ It’s just a testament to who he is as a person.”

Shazier has made appearances at Steelers practices and attended their regular season finale. Hopefully, he will be at Sunday’s divisional round playoff game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

He is still in rehab. As long as he is rehabbing, there is hope (however slim) for full recovery.

But there is no question it will be a long road and the focus should be on his quality of life. The majority of recovery occurs in the first 48 hours.


Victory would be to see Shazier walking again and playing in the yard with his son.

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