On November 1, 2015, Ricardo Lockette was on the receiving end of a hard hit from the Cowboys' Jeff Heath on a special teams play that put an end to his NFL career and came dangerously close to ending his life. In a piece on The Players' Tribune that was published on Tuesday, Lockette recalls the moment that felt like "being in a car accident":
I hit the ground, and I heard the sound you never want to hear. When you have a brush with death, people always say you see a light. Well, I didn’t see a light. I heard a noise. You know the noise I’m talking about—like when you were a little kid, bored at a family party, and you ran your finger around the top of your auntie’s wine glass. It’s that weird, far-off ringing sound.
In the immediate aftermath of the hit, Lockette's mind raced with questions, with one of them being "Am I about to die?" As the 30-year-old laid on the AT&T Stadium field, he said, “Lord, just help me. I know that I’m here for a reason. If you help me off this ground, I’ll change lives.” In his piece, Lockette writes about how it was actually the second time he said those words in his life:
I’ve never spoken about this before, but the first time I made that promise was when I was in college. I was talking to a young lady when her boyfriend came up and pulled a gun on me. It was a revolver, so I could see the bullets in the chamber. I didn’t know whether I was going to live or die.
As if this day in Lockette's life couldn't be any worse, he also reveals that his daughter was in the crowd, celebrating her 10th birthday by watching her father play in person. Lockette writes about what it was like to have her come to visit him in the hospital after the game. He also credits Marshawn Lynch with helping him make it through his hospital visit by staying with him for his entire first night:
When I was taken to the hospital in Dallas, Marshawn stayed in my room with me the whole first night. This dude had me laughing so hard that he was putting my damn life in danger. I’m laying in bed with a full neck brace, just trying to stay still, and he’s just being Marshawn—talking to the nurses, making jokes, being crazy.
To read the rest of Lockette's heart-wrenching piece, which also details a very powerful meeting Lockette had with a homeless man after announcing his retirement from the NFL, go here.
