After major brain injury, Gadler playing fearlessly
Trey and Tanya Gadler were in bliss watching their son Brazos Gadler catch a fourth-quarter touchdown in Cypress Creek’s regional semifinal win over Strake Jesuit at NRG Stadium last week.
Julian Uwadia’s pass over the middle found a wideopen Brazos, who caught the ball around the 3-yard line and trotted into the end zone for the 21-yard score. Easy. No fear. Gadler caught five passes for 79 yards and the touchdown in Saturday’s 45-33 win. He’s at 26 catches for 435 yards and three touchdowns this season.
Perhaps more is in store. Cypress Creek (9-4) meets Katy Taylor (8-5) in the Class 6A Division II Region III final at 2 p.m. Saturday back at NRG Stadium.
Just a year ago, though, the junior football and baseball standout was slipping in and out of consciousness for four days and nights in an intensive care unit.
The line between that touchdown catch and Brazos living a completely different life is minute.
Brazos was with friends on the Fourth of July in 2018, swimming in the backyard pool when they decided to climb onto the patio cover rooftop and jump off it into the deep end. It’s the same kind of fearless spirit Brazos is known for.
‘Worst-case scenarios’
Brazos took a step backward on top of the roof to get a running start but tripped and fell onto the glass skylight of the patio cover. Brazos was rushed to Texas Children’s Hospital after sustaining multiple skull fractures, a broken left arm and a broken left big toe. He had also cracked a vertebra in his neck.
Brazos suffered a diffuse axonal injury, a severe brain injury, after falling through a skylight from the roof to a concrete floor 12-15 feet below him.
“They gave us all of the worst-case scenarios — everything from being handicapped in a wheelchair, to possibly needing to relearn how to walk and talk, to maybe even not staying alive,” Tanya Gadler said. “They didn’t know how it was going to turn out. We just had to wait and see. But it was absolutely frightening.”
After stabilizing him within the first 24 hours, doctors needed to insert a drain into his skull to relieve the swelling. Brazos says he doesn’t remember between the fall and waking up in the hospital — even memory of the fall itself is fuzzy. Trey and Tanya never left his side and never stopped wondering what was next as Brazos was in and out of consciousness.
Tanya understandably hadn’t gotten much sleep when suddenly in the middle of the night, she heard a voice say to her “Do you trust me?”
“I’m a very spiritual person, and I just gave in at that point, and put it in God’s hands,” she said. “The next day, Brazos came to and started talking to us, answering our questions. It was amazing.”
Brazos spent another five days in ICU and 10 more days in the hospital. The neurologist who had first seen Brazos and the brain scan told the Gadlers she was in awe of his recovery. Cypress Creek football coach Greg McCaig had to see for himself.
“My first reaction when I heard about the accident was is Brazos going to be OK?” McCaig said. “Regardless of whether he was going to ever play athletics again, that didn’t make any difference to me. When I saw him in the hospital, his chances of that did not look good.”
Brazos’ mobility was still limited when he returned home for the rest of the summer, but he was able to walk enough to return to Cypress Creek for his sophomore year when the 201819 school year began. He was not cleared by doctors to play football, however.
“I was actually OK with that because I was just doing whatever I could to get healthy enough to play baseball,” Brazos said. “I told my dad while I was in the hospital that I was going to play baseball again. No doubt about it.”
Brazos didn’t wilt on that guarantee. By spring, he was cleared by doctors to participate in baseball. The parents bought Brazos the best helmet they could find, and as thrilling as it was to see their son return to an athletic setting — he made the varsity team as a center fielder — there was still concern. Baseball may be considered a non-contact sport, but being hit in the head by a pitch, running into an outfield wall or a collision with another player are real concerns.
“The raw speed, he’s aggressive, and he’s not afraid to take chances,” Cypress Creek baseball head coach Erin Bryant said. “So, on the baseball field, for him, a single becomes a double real fast. With his mentality and his skillset, after he was declared healthy and was cleared to play, he was the best guy we had out there.”
Of course, the Friday night lights beckoned — lifethreatening injury or not.
Safety concerns
Brazos still didn’t have permission to play from his parents for this season even though he pleaded his case for a full month.
Concerns over football’s safety is at an all-time high but in Brazos’ case, his parents’ fear was even higher.
“I was hoping the doctors wouldn’t clear him,” Trey said. “The safest thing was to just say forget it. You’re not playing football, let’s focus on baseball. But in the end, he can only play high school football one time in his life, and we didn’t want to rob him of that experience. But they said they found no reason why he couldn’t play football. He had healed up that well and had no limitations.”
McCaig and the Cougars are grateful for Brazos’ choice to play, and he fit right into the slot receiving position. McCaig also needed a punt returner and knew that Brazos’ speed and ability catching fly balls in the outfield might be an asset.
It’s scary, no doubt. At least for everyone except Brazos.
“There’s always a risk with football, and in particular with the position we have him in as a slot receiver and punt returner, he’s going to get hit,” McCaig said. “But Brazos was doing a great job tracking the punts in practice, and being back there playing special teams didn’t bother him at all. I was a little hesitant at first to put him out there, but he said he was ready to play and had no fear.”