Honesty about injury saved Wright
While at Southern California, DB nearly played with broken neck
Looking back on what very well could have been the most catastrophic day of his life, Shareece Wright looks to the skies and thanks the Lord that not only is he still playing football, but that’s he’s also not crippled.
When Wright was a junior at Southern California in 2008, he suffered a broken C-5 vertebra in his neck while trying to make a tackle. And what makes his story so incredible is that when it happened, he was actually able to stand up and walk off the field. Even more incredible, the broken neck wasn’t officially diagnosed until several days later and only because Wright went to the trainers and said he was feeling a little discomfort when he put his helmet on.
The Trojans were playing Ohio State, and Buckeyes quarterback Terrell Pryor dropped back to pass, then scrambled out of the pocket, and Wright left his coverage responsibility to come up and make the tackle. As he did so, USC defensive end Everson Griffin was in pursuit and just as they were arriving at Pryor, an Ohio State receiver tried to block Wright. He lost his leverage and was in an awkward spot when Pryor and Griffin crashed into him and his head snapped back.
“It was the craziest, weirdest feeling I ever had in my life,” Wright said. “I stood up and I was out of it, wasn’t sure what happened, and I couldn’t really feel the right side of my body. I tried to grab my mouthpiece with my right hand, and it fell out of my hand.”
Wright was done for the game and was held out of practice for most of the next week while the Trojans had a bye, but he returned as USC began preparing for its next game thinking everything was fine.
“I didn’t know for a week that my neck was broke. It was just like a stiff neck,” he said. “They just thought it was a pinched nerve the whole time. I remember I was going to play in the next game, and I was practicing with a broken neck. I told the doctor that when I put my helmet on it hurt, and that’s when he knew something else was wrong.”
Wright was immediately sent for tests. “They said if you pass all these tests you can play in the game, so I went and got the tests done, and when they shut the door I knew it was bad, and that’s when they told me,” he said. “I was like no way, I’ve been walking around, I was fine.”
Wright wore a neck brace for more than three months and did not play again that season. He then was academically ineligible for 2009, but he returned good as new — physically and academically — for his senior year in 2010 and went on to become a third- round draft pick of the San Diego Chargers in 2011. He played four seasons with the Chargers and two more with the Baltimore Ravens before signing with the Buffalo Bills in early June, where he’s now competing to win a backup job in the secondary.
His story is a lesson to athletes in any sport.
“If I hadn’t been honest about it hurting when I put my helmet on, I would have went out there and played in the game not knowing that I could have really been in danger,” he said.
Wright was a full-time starter for the Chargers in 2013 and
2014, during which time he made one interception, 18 pass breakups and 116 tackles. After a brief stopover with the San Francisco
49ers, he joined the Ravens in 2015 and started 16 games over two seasons, making 92 tackles and 11 pass breakups. In Buffalo, he’s a valued veteran in a secondary that is young, and if he makes the team, he will provide guidance and leadership.
If nothing else in Buffalo, he’ll always have the Uber story.
He made news when he took a now infamous Uber ride in June from Chicago to Buffalo, which cost him about $900. He had flown through Chicago and couldn’t book a connecting flight, so he found a Uber driver willing to make the long journey so that he could make a team meeting the next morning.
“It’s not even mandatory to be here,” he said upon arrival, “but for me it is. I’m new to the team and I’m going to do whatever I can to play my role.”
Coach Sean McDermott loved that story and said it was a shining example of the type of commitment that is necessary for players to succeed, and the more guys like that you have on your roster, the better off you’ll be.
“I just love the story; we all should,” McDermott said. “That’s what building a team is all about, it’s what guys do because they love one another, right? At the end of the day, he knows that he’s accountable to his teammates, and he knows he needs to be here and, to me, that action spoke volumes about who he is and who we are.”
“I didn’t know for a week that my neck was broke, it was just like a stiff neck. They just thought it was a pinched nerve the whole time.” Shareece Wright