Richard Collier seemed invincible. At 6-feet-7 and 345 pounds, the Jacksonville Jaguars left tackle was, literally, the size of a grizzly bear.
As opening day of the 2008 NFL season neared, the then 27-year-old was entering his prime.
But life as he knew it all ended in an instant. In the early morning hours of September 2, 2008, Collier was ambushed in his Cadillac Escalante and shot multiple times. The attacker lost his freedom; he is in prison for life. Collier lost his left leg and movement in his body from the waist down.
His football career was clearly over. But Collier was determined to get back on his feet. He was engaged to be married, and he promised himself he’d stand at the altar.
“People try to put disabled people into a corner, ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that,’” he told an aol.com FanHouse reporter. “I am like, ‘I am going to go totally against the grain and I will make it work’.”
For nearly two years he attacked his physical therapy sessions like he once battled opposing linemen. Some athletes are gym rats. Collier is a rehab rat. It’s hard to get him to call it a day. Additionally, he began spending his off-hours delivering motivational speeches to others who are disabled.
Last July 3, Collier and his fiancée, Chandra Baker, received booming applause in the hotel ballroom the day of their marriage ceremony. Collier was waiting for her at the head of the ballroom, dressed in a gray tuxedo and a white bowtie. With the help of a prosthesis and a special brace, he was out of his wheelchair, on his feet.
“I got to kiss my wife standing up,” he told Yahoo! Sports.
Collier, now 29, is certain he will walk again. He says, “I will never let people tell me what I can’t do.”
