Penn State Sports Magazine
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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 5 6 1 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M the state's General Assembly, and now works as a lobbyist for the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company. Along the way, he served as an alumni-elected member of Penn State's board of trustees and launched the Adam Taliaferro Foundation, which provides financial and emotional sup- port to people who've suffered spinal cord injuries. Married to former Penn State swim- mer Erin Mulshenock, with whom he has a 10-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter, Taliaferro is leading a life that might have seemed unattainable in the harrowing days that followed his injury. That life was made possible by the ex- pert care he received, starting with how the medical personnel from Penn State and Ohio State treated him while he was lying on the field. "The injury was horrible," Taliaferro told Colton and "Uncorked" co-host Bill Green. "But everything that hap- pened afterward was a blessing." Textbook Treatment If you watch a replay of Taliaferro's injury, you'll notice cornerback Bhawoh Jue approach with his left arm extended following the play. Jue looks like he's going to pull his teammate up off the turf, but then he backs off, seemingly realizing something's wrong. That was the first in a series of fortu- nate breaks that gave Taliaferro a shot at recovery. "If he'd picked me up, I would have been done," Taliaferro said. "I would have done more damage to my neck. If this injury had happened in a car ac- cident, I'd be in a wheelchair or would have passed away." It was also fortunate that the Ohio State University Medical Center is located next to the school's athletics complex. Taliaferro received what he called "textbook" treatment on the field, then was taken quickly to the hospital for examination. He under- went decompression spinal fusion sur- gery three days after the game, during which doctors performed a bone graft and inserted a metal fastener to stabi- lize his spine. The surgery was successful, but Taliaferro's prognosis was still sobering. Doctors told his parents he had maybe a 5 percent chance of ever walking again. They chose not to tell him and forbid any visitors to his room from mention- ing the long odds he was facing. Back at Penn State, the football team held a prayer rally at Old Main the day before facing Purdue. Joe Paterno was among the speakers, having returned to State College from Columbus, where he had stayed behind to be with Taliaferro after the game. "What happened to Adam is out of our hands," Paterno told a crowd of thousands spread out across the lawn. "It's in the hands of a God who is still creating miracles." 'Something Went Through Me' This particular miracle first took the form of a wiggling toe. After a week at Ohio State, Taliaferro had been airlifted to Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Phila- delphia. For the first two months of his rehab, he couldn't move anything at all. Then one night after his parents had gone home, a nurse noticed that his toe was moving. She asked him to do it again. He did. It was nearly midnight, but they were so excited they called his parents back. Then they called Paterno and Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli, Penn State's direc- tor of athletic medicine. Soon afterward, Taliaferro began mak- ing steady progress. The Magee Rehabili- tation Hospital was conducting a clinical trial of a harness system designed to help injured patients get back on their feet. With the harness supporting Taliaferro's body weight, therapists would move his limbs to simulate a walking motion. Eventually, he was able to discard the harness for a walker. He was still very weak; just standing up would make him dizzy, and every step felt like a marathon mile. But it was also exhilarating, be- cause he knew at that point he'd be able to walk again. By July, he was ready to return to Penn State. Taliaferro enrolled in summer classes and was also welcomed back into the football program. Paterno wanted him to help with defensive signals. "Don't think you're going anywhere," the coach said. When Penn State opened its season Sept. 1 against Miami, Taliaferro was the night's biggest star. He sat next to Pa- terno at the front of the lead bus, then led the team onto the field, receiving a thunderous ovation from the crowd of 109,313 that had packed the newly ex- panded Beaver Stadium. Taliaferro's physical therapist had advised him to go slow, but once he emerged from the tunnel and scanned the crowd, he got caught up in the emo- tion of the moment. "I had never heard the stadium that loud," he said. "I took a couple of steps, and each step I took, I felt the stadium getting louder and louder. I got to the 10- yard line and thought, I'm going to try to run a little bit. Something went through me, and I ran from the 10- to the 20-yard line. I was like, 'I can't believe that just happened.'" Taliaferro finished his Penn State ca- reer with just 3 tackles, but he created a legacy that transcends all the usual metrics. He's stayed close to the football program over the years, speaking to the team on occasion at the behest of James Franklin, who he said "treats me like I played for him." Taliaferro will always have a place in the hearts of Penn Staters, and the re- verse is true, too. PSU, he said, "is a really unique place. I tell people all the time, I only played five games at Penn State. I got injured, but the way that they've embraced me the past 25 years has been unbelievable." ■ "It's a special place. It's a really unique place. I tell people all the time, I only played five games at Penn State. I got injured, but the way that they've embraced me the past 25 years has been unbelievable." T A L I A F E R R O