In early 2014, Jaylend Ratliffe was a high school football star. He was then a junior. However, he was so talented he was already highly recruited – a “four star” recruit, to be precise.
One of the colleges recruiting him was Georgia Tech. In March 2014, that school’s head coach – Paul Johnson – visited Ratliffe. During the visit, Johnson told Ratliffe the following: “Jaylend, I want you to know something. Here at Georgia Tech, we’re not like other schools. If anything ever happens to you, we’re going to honor your scholarship.”
Ratliffe believed Johnson. He committed to Georgia Tech.
Five months later, in July, Ratliffe and a friend went riding ATVs. There weren’t enough helmets for all riders. Because they didn’t plan “to do nothing stupid”, they decided to leave the helmets behind.
As you can guess: bad move. Ratliffe and his passenger, a teammate, were involved in a serious accident. Both were injured.
Ratliffe was injured the most seriously. He had suffered a skull fracture and a traumatic brain injury with intracranial bleeding.
He was taken to a major hospital and trauma center for treatment. Initially, Ratliffe seemed to be improving. But two days after the accident, his condition nosedived – and turned critical.
Ratliffe was placed in a medically induced coma for a week. Part of his skull was removed to release pressure on his brain.
When Ratliffe awoke, he was partially paralyzed. He never played his senior season of high school football.
Many college coaches would have revoked his scholarship at this point. Instead, Georgia Tech honored it.
After extensive rehabilitation and therapy, Ratliffe has made a good recovery. He now walks and talks normally. He is even able to compete in certain athletic events – such as track and field, where he does well at the college level. But he’s lost, likely permanently, some fine motor skills. His left hand (before his injury, he was a left-handed quarterback) has not completely healed, and his balance is still affected. He’ll likely not ever play college football.
Yet he is today attending Georgia Tech – on scholarship. He has full access to all of the facilities and services that other student-athletes there have. And as Paul Johnson puts it: “It will a near miracle for him to play again. (sic) But we’re happy to have him as a student-assistant.”
. . .
Christian Easter is a holiday of faith, and (one might say) of second chances. Somehow this story just seems apropos for today.
A young man has faith in another man. That other man later honors his word, even though circumstances have changed dramatically. And because of that, the young man gets a second chance.
Kudos, Paul Johnson. You don’t seem to be a vet. I don’t know whether you learned to keep your word during your coaching stints at Navy (1995-1996 and 2002-2007) or where you were raised in western North Carolina nearly 40 years earlier.
I’d personally guess the latter – but it doesn’t matter. You appear to be one a helluva fine man, regardless.
ESPN has a much longer article about this. If you have a few minutes, it’s worth a read. If you do, you might want to have a tissue handy.
