Diamyn Hall
speaker
96 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Diamyn Hall’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Mick Unplugged · Diamyn Hall | From Paralysis to Purpose: Diamyn Hall's Journey · 14 Dec 2024
podcast
Like, start athlete. I was 14 years old, was a football player. Up until this point, my mission and my vision was to get to the NFL so I could take care of my family.
In that moment, the because was my family. It was my mom.
It was my little brother. It was, how do I become the best version of myself over these next few years?
The number one thing would be to treat every single day. This is what I call the one day contract mentality. The second tip is be as coachable as you possibly can be. If there's one thing I've learned through working with some of the best athletes in the world, some of the best coaches in the world, some of the best executives in the world, they are always, always, always seeking to learn.
They're curious to get better. They're seeking feedback. The best of the best want to be coached.
I think that's a fantastic idea. And if you're watching right now, there should be some excitement bubbling up and boiling up inside of you.
Yeah, so I guess the place to start is, to your point, I was 14 years old, was a football player. Up until this point, my mission was And my vision was to get to the NFL so I could take care of my family. And I remember it like it was yesterday. We were playing. We were playing McNick. They had green jerseys, white, white letters. And I lined up as a slot receiver.
So lined up as a slot and I was running the streak. And so my quarterback, he pulled back and he throws it to our tight end who ran a slant. And so I look back, I see our tight end catch the ball and then he gets hit super hard. Right. fumbles. And so for me, I'm running full speed towards the, towards the football. And I dive head first, like feet extended above the ground, arms out extended.
And I remember seeing, as I was, as I was diving for the football, I remember seeing another guy on the other team. He was diving for the football as well. A little bit smaller than me, sized them up. Like, you know, when you hit the matrix button and everything goes in slow motion, I excised him. I was like, oh, okay, I'm definitely gonna get this. And I remember hearing a loud crack.
And I was used to getting hit hard, was used to hitting other people hard. And everything blocked out. And I remember staring at the sky. And all of a sudden, my teammates come into my field of vision. And... you hear the crowd go, ooh. And my teammates come over and they're looking down at me. I'll never forget this moment.
One of my best teammates, one of my best friends at the time, Ryan Bayer, he's looking down at me and he's like, Diamond, get up. Diamond, get up. And I can see my field of vision shaking. So I knew he was like, he had his hands on me and he was shaking. And I remember in that moment thinking to myself like, oh my God, like I'm paralyzed.
And I think I was the first one, I think it was the first one to notice. And I remember looking back over Ryan and saying, Ryan, I can't get up. I can't move. And then he like takes this step back and I see like his eyes start to tear up and I can see the emotion like boiling inside of him. Like, oh my goodness, this is my best friend. He's like, he can't move.
And I know we were thinking this at the same time. Like, this is the stuff you see on TV. This is the stuff that you see in people's careers. And now in my brain, I'm thinking to myself, look, I'm going to be staring at the ceiling for the rest of my life. Somebody's going to have to feed me through a tube. And I'm 14 years old, having to come to peace with this all at one time.
And I remember the ambulance came and got me, put me on the stretcher, took me to the hospital. And when we were in the ambulance truck, you know, my mom was in the, she was in there with me. And I remember looking over at her and telling her everything was going to be OK. And at this moment, I knew everything was not going to be OK. But I still said it.
I still it still came out just to give her some form of comfort in that moment. And she starts pouring down crying because in her mind, she knew everything wasn't going to be OK. I knew everything wasn't going to be OK. So we get to the hospital and 24 to 48 hours later, something amazing happens.
I ended up getting my feeling back in my fingers, then my arms, then my upper body, then my feet, then my legs. And I remember the doctors coming in. and saying like, this is a miracle. Like diamond, like you're not supposed, like that was supposed to be it. We have something called congenital stenosis. We did all the scans. We ran all the numbers. We have something called congenital stenosis.
And I'm like, in my mind, like what's congenital stenosis? What is that? And so he explains it to us quickly. He says, you've got, everybody has a little bit of fluid around their spine that keeps them safe from being paralyzed when they have head-on collisions. Everybody's got a certain amount. He said,
The amount that you have around your spine is abnormally much less than the average person, which is why this happened, which is why you went head on with this guy and you're temporarily paralyzed from the neck down. And I was like, okay, perfect. I'm good. I've got my feeling back. Listen, when can I get back on the field? And I remember the doctor taking like this big, deep breath.
He looks down like this. Looks over at us. And you could tell he's like mustering up the courage to tell me something. And my mom was like, oh my goodness. And so he looks over at me and he goes, Diamond, I got good news and I got bad news for you. I said, well, Doc, let's start with the good news. What's the good news? He said, the good news is you're moving. You're walking. Your hands work.
Your feet work. Everything from your neck down works. It wasn't supposed to be this way. It was supposed to be the opposite. He said, the bad news is Is that based on you having congenital stenosis and the danger that it would put you in if we let you back on the field? He said, I can't clear to play this game anymore. And for me, I'll never forget those words.
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