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Former NFL running back looks to get back into competition after losing leg 2 years ago

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Former Rams running back Isaiah Pead’s football career ended abruptly on November 13, 2016, when he got into a car accident and lost his leg.

But two years later, through a lot of hard work, faith and dedication, Pead is looking to compete once again — not as a football player, but as a paralympic athlete.

Pead was a standout running back for the University of Cincinnati from 2008 to 2011, finishing as the school’s third all-time leading rusher. He played in the 2012 Senior Bowl and won MVP.

In the spring of 2012 Pead was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in the second round. He played 25 games in his first two season with the Rams, mostly as a punt returner.

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He tore his ACL in the 2014 preseason and was out the entire year. In 2015, Pead played sparingly for the Rams, and in 2016 he signed a deal with the Dolphins. He didn’t play much in Miami and was released Oct. 11.

About a month after that, his life changed forever when his car went off the road at a high rate of speed near his home in Columbus, Ohio. He crashed into a guard rail and was thrown from the vehicle, according to the Cincinnati Inquirer.

Pead lost most of his left leg in the accident.

“From what I’m told, I landed about 30 feet from the car. The bottom half of my leg was just gone. It was severed, and the blood was rushing out of my body while I was lying in the grass. I’ve been told by doctors that from the time of the impact, I had three — maybe five minutes at most — to live before I bled out. That’s how close I was to dying that night. To my son having to grow up without a father,” Pead wrote in The Players’ Tribune in May.

Luckily, the car behind him called 911 and paramedics were on the scene almost immediately. They saved his life.

“I still celebrate the day of the accident because it’s the day my life changed forever — and for the better, I think. I mean, I’ve spent almost every day for the last 18 months with my son. If I was still playing football — still chasing that dream — there’s no way I would have been able to do that,” Pead wrote in the Players’ Tribune.

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In August 2017, Pead got a prosthetic walking leg, which soon led him to get a prosthetic running leg to fulfill a new dream: competing in the Paralympics.

“But like I said, God has new dreams for me now. And I think one of those is to compete in the Paralympic Games,” Pead added.

“I asked God that day from my hospital bed to show me the meaning of this. I asked Him why this happened to me,” he wrote. “Now, I believe He’s showing me. I’m developing new dreams, new ambitions. I’m seeing that there’s life other than football, and I’ve found it.

“I’ve found a happy life. I feel like I’ve been reborn.”

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Dave is a lifelong sports fan who has been writing for The Wildcard since 2017. He has been a writer for more than 20 years for a variety of publications.
Dave has been writing about sports for The Wildcard since 2017. He's been a reporter and editor for over 20 years, covering everything from sports to financial news. In addition to writing for The Wildcard, Dave has covered mutual funds for Pensions and Investments, meetings and conventions, money market funds, personal finance, associations, and he currently covers financial regulations and the energy sector for Macallan Communications. He has won awards for both news and sports reporting.
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