Former Bearcats RB Isaiah Pead Shares His Story With Players' Tribune

CINCINNATI - Former University of Cincinnati running back Isaiah Pead shared his riveting story with The Players' Tribune Wednesday, detailing how he lost his leg in a car accident, the immediate aftermath and his future plans to compete on the track as a Paralympian. 

Pead was the MVP of the 2012 Senior Bowl, adding to a list of accolades which included: 2011 BIG EAST Conference Offensive Player of the Year, First-Team All-BIG EAST running back and 2011 AutoZone Liberty Bowl MVP. In 2011, he led the BIG EAST Conference with 1,259 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns. He averaged 96.85 yards per contest, which ranked 27th best in the nation this season and added 319 receiving yards and three more scores for a total of 15 on the year. He capped off the year with an MVP performance in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, going for 149 yards and a touchdown in the Bearcats' win over Vanderbilt. Pead left Cincinnati ranked third on the school's all-time list with 3,288 rushing yards and 27 rushing touchdowns. He's in the top ten in several other rushing categories including attempts (545, 6th), 100-yard games (11, 6th), 200-yard games (1, T-3rd) and rushing average (6.03 ypc-4th). He also ranks tied for second with 33 total touchdowns and tied for seventh for total points with 198.

He was selected by the then St. Louis Rams in the second-round of the 2012 NFL Draft and played for the team from 2012-15 before moving on to the Pittsburgh Steelers (2015) and Miami Dolphins (2016).

His first-person story of what happened on the night of Nov. 12, 2016 and after starts below and is continued on The Players' Tribune website.

What's Your Plan Here, God?
By Isaiah Pead for The Players' Tribune
May 23, 2018

When I woke up in the hospital, I couldn't feel anything. I was still drugged up. I could hear people in the room talking, and I remember hearing my mom's voice. I tried to listen to what they were saying — just … ear hustling, you know? Trying to pick up whatever I could and piece together what had happened.

I heard somebody say "accident." I figured it must have been pretty bad for me to end up in the hospital.

Then my heart rate went up and the monitors started beeping real fast, so the doctor sedated me. Put me back under. My mom told me that he did that the next couple of times I woke up before she finally told him, "Don't do that. Let him know what's going on. He wants to know."

I had a tube in my mouth so I couldn't speak. But I could move my hands. I signaled for somebody to bring me a pen and paper.

I wrote: "What's going on?"

"You were in a car accident," my mom said. "You lost your leg."

I tried to look down and see for myself, but I was lying down and I didn't have the energy to sit up or even lift my head. So all I could really see was my toes sticking up.

Only one set.

I went back to the paper.

"I don't have toes?" I wrote. "Where does it stop?"

I don't really remember what my mom said next. It's all kind of hazy. People in the room started talking again — trying to talk to me, I think — but I just closed my eyes, took a breath, and had a one-on-one with God.

I was alive. I thanked Him for that. Then I asked Him what this all meant. Like, Show me the meaning of this. Help me understand what I don't understand. Why did this happen? What's your plan here, God? What's your story?

I had so many questions.

I didn't even remember the accident. I had blacked out. Even now, I don't remember it … luckily.

That would be a memory that I wouldn't want to remember.

READ PEAD'S COMPLETE STORY AND VIEW THE ACCOMPANYING VIDEO BY CLICKING HERE
This story appears courtesy of The Players' Tribune.