The power of football
What happened after a wreck left a former wide receiver paralyzed.
The doctors at Regional One Medical Center told Joe Craig Jr., he was paralyzed. They told his family there could be permanent brain damage and memory loss. They told his father about classes he could attend on how to care for someone who can't walk anymore.
They told this former University of Memphis wide receiver, who Rivals.com once listed as the third-fastest athlete in the entire country, to prepare for the absolute worst.
That's what often happens after a Dodge Challenger collides with an SUV in the middle of a major Memphis intersection at 3 a.m. After it spins around and around until it collides again with a metal pole. After the damage is so bad the car looks like something out of a demolition derby.
Craig had never suffered more than a sprained ankle from playing football, and there was no foul play or alcohol involved in this incident, according to the Memphis Police Department accident report. This was just a late-night car crash at the corner of Poplar Avenue and Danny Thomas Boulevard in which the other driver suffered only minor injuries and Craig was taken away unconscious in an ambulance.
“A daddy's nightmare,” Craig Sr. said “You walk in, you're looking at your kid, and you don't know because he's got his teeth shoved down his throat. You don't know what exactly is going on because he can't tell you. Then he wakes up and he tried to tell me something and when I couldn't understand him, he got aggravated and mad and then he went off into a seizure because he couldn't talk to me.”
On the morning of Aug. 22, on the morning they told Craig Jr. he was
paralyzed, he had a broken neck in two places. He had nearly severed his spine. He had a broken sternum and a broken left arm. He had two minor strokes and four seizures. He had four surgeries awaiting him and no health insurance to pay for them.
But those doctors never told him about the power of football, or the power of the Memphis football community. They never told him about his grandmother.
She was there in the hospital, too, even though she died in July. She was there right after Craig Jr. had the first seizures of his life, right before doctors decided to rush him into the first of those four surgeries. She smiled at Craig Jr., grabbed his right leg, and squeezed his knee. It sent a jolt through his body, a jolt he hadn't felt when the doctors used the reflex hammer before or when they pricked him in the foot with a needle.
Craig Jr. assumed he was hallucinating, that the pre-surgery drugs were kicking in. But the nurse told him they hadn't been administered yet. So he began to tell his father about what was happening, about how Craig Sr.'s mother was in the room smiling, about how she'd given him feeling in his legs again.
“Tell momma I say hi,” Craig Sr. told his son.
But he told her more than that, more than any doctor had told him to that point.
“I knew that no matter what they were telling me, no matter if it was going to take me a year, or 10 years,” Craig Jr. said, “I was determined to make sure I would walk again.”
It took him less than three weeks.
'Bigger than the money'
In the midst of a pandemic that's completely changed our lives, that completely changed Craig Jr.'s life even before his car accident, that completely changed the lives of football players everywhere, it can be easy to lose faith in life's miracles and the goodness of strangers, or to forget that some of life's worst moments can turn into our best.
But all that still exists and they helped get Craig Jr., 28, back on his feet.
He said he tested positive for COVID-19 in July, and subsequently lost his job with a Bartlett-based pharmaceutical company and the health insurance that came with employment. It became a big problem as he lay in a hospital bed, as he had four surgeries that led to metal plates and metal screws to stabilize his neck and back.
So on Aug. 27, five days after the car accident that left him temporarily paralyzed, he started a Gofundme fundraiser to pay his medical bills.
The support came pouring in.
From friends and former high school teammates back in Gaffney, South Carolina. From former Memphis teammates. From former teammates at Clemson, where he began his college football career. From fans of both schools. From 365 people in all, many of whom he'd never met. One anonymous donor even gave him $2,000.
He set a fundraising goal of $20,000. As of Friday, he had received $21,328. It has covered most of his medical expenses thus far.
“It was bigger than the money for me,” Craig Jr. said. “It actually got me through it. It filled me with happiness and joy, and I really needed that.”
His football career at Memphis ended after the 2014 season, when the Tigers won a share of the American Athletic Conference championship under former coach Justin Fuente. Since then, like a lot of college graduates, he had been searching for what to do next.
He signed as an undrafted free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals. He played a couple seasons in the Canadian Football League. He thought about getting into coaching. He started a training business. He planned to start a podcast and wanted to become a motivational speaker before the pandemic hit.
But he realizes now, after this car accident, after spending 24 days in the hospital, that perhaps he needed this to happen to find his way again.
“It might sound crazy, but it woke me up,” Craig Jr. said. “I feel like I have a purpose I haven't fulfilled yet, and that's the only reason I was saved from that wreck and still here today. I want to be that person people can look to and have an understanding that they can make anything in their life happen. It may take awhile longer than what they expect, but they can make it happen.”
A walk to remember
So that first day, when the teenager who set South Carolina track and field records was told he might never walk again, turned into the next day, and then the next day after that. And slowly Joe Craig Jr. began the healing process.
When he first moved his legs, Craig Sr. joked he should “tell momma she's doing a good job.”
When Craig Jr. got moved to the rehabilitation facility at Regional One, he took his first steps since the accident. Then he began walking up and down stairs. Then he got competitive about it, insisting on accomplishing more each session.
Finally, on Sept. 9, Craig Jr. walked out of the hospital.
With plates in his neck and screws in his back that might need to remain there the rest of his life. With the chance he could need another surgery if his arm doesn't heal properly. With 30 pounds less than he entered but more inspiration than he ever had before.
So he went back to Gaffney last week. To visit his grandmother's old house. To visit her grave. To visit his old school. To thank them. To show them he can walk again.
On Sunday, Craig will return to Memphis. He wants to thank and show everyone here, too.
“Victory walk with Joe Craig! Sept. 26th, 4pm in Memphis @ Tom Lee Park by the river!!” Craig tweeted Saturday. Because they told him he couldn't. Because, especially in the middle of a pandemic, we all need a reminder about the power of football and the power of faith, and how life's worst moments can turn into its best.
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto