Nittany Lion Overcomes a Life-Altering Injury – New York Times:
“STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – When Adam Taliaferro walks across a stage to receive his undergraduate degree from Penn State on May 14, his slight limp should hardly be noticeable under his navy-blue graduation gown.
“The limp is one of the few visible signs remaining from a catastrophic injury that left Taliaferro temporarily paralyzed from the neck down. The crown of Taliaferro’s helmet collided with an Ohio State running back’s knee in the waning seconds of a Buckeyes rout in Columbus in September 2000. The blow shattered the fifth cervical vertebra in Taliaferro’s neck ‘like a walnut inside a nutcracker,’ a doctor said later.
“Doctors gave Taliaferro, a freshman cornerback at the time, a 3 percent chance of walking again. But four and a half years later, Taliaferro has returned to a mostly normal life, his remarkable recovery a testament to his will, his family’s strength and the support of Coach Joe Paterno and a Penn State community that embraced the Taliaferros in the immediate aftermath of the injury and in the following years.
“‘Sometimes I feel selfish, because all the credit for my recovery comes to me,’ Taliaferro said. ‘But it was more than that that got me through this. I had a tremendous amount of support from a lot of people.’ …”