Ex-pro Ricardo Lockette makes appearance at Albany sports symposium

ALBANY — Phoebe Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine hosted a sports symposium on Wednesday for southwest Georgia athletic directors, coaches and school administrators — who also heard from a former professional sports figure native to the Albany area.

Topics discussed at the symposium, held at Phoebe Northwest, included recognition of skin conditions and infectious diseases, concussion management, sudden cardiac arrest, neurological spinal injuries and emergency planning, as well as breakout sessions that included training in taping and backboard use.

Robert Rosso, executive director of Phoebe’s orthopaedics center, said this is the second event stemming from the recognition that there are not many resources for coaches in south Georgia when it comes to injury response.

Input is received from the target audience on what topics to cover, and it has been well-received.

“This is continued education on what to do and do it well,” Rosso said. “We need to provide the knowledge to (respond to an injury). It is just as critical to prevent doing the wrong thing to an injured athlete.

“It is the difference between someone walking and talking and having a life, to the worst possible outcome.”

Ricardo Lockette, a former NFL football player and Albany native, was the guest speaker at the symposium. Lockette, best known during his athletic career as a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks, suffered a spinal cord injury in November 2015 during a game that could have left him paralyzed or even killed him.

Lockette, a graduate of Monroe Comprehensive High School, earned “The Rocket” nickname due to his accomplishments in track. The nickname carried him to Fort Valley State University, where he played football and won the NCAA Division II 200-meter dash in 2008 in a personal record of 20.63 seconds.

He tied for the third-fastest 40-yard dash at 4.37 seconds at the 2011 NFL scouting combine. He just missed the cutoff to make the Olympic track team.

Lockette said he focused heavily on developing his athletic career, finding many doors closing on him. For the Olympics, he trained six days a week for a year. For two days, he was living in his car in a Walmart parking lot.

“My parents had sent me money to fund my dream,” he said. “I felt like I let them down and I let Albany down.”

Someone approached Lockette about the opportunity to play football again, which he pursued aggressively. He got his foot in the door when he was signed by the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 2011.

“Is your purpose bigger than your work?” he said of his motivation to move forward. “Our purpose is to get full. I was hungry.”

While on punt coverage on Nov. 1, 2015 against the Dallas Cowboys, Lockette was concussed after a “blindside” hit. His neck was broken, and he was left motionless on the field, wondering if he would have the opportunity to hug his family or throw a football again.

If someone had touched him the wrong way, it is possible the injury could have been fatal.

“It can happen any day, any second,” he said.

Lockette said that coaches ought to be focused on the well-being of their athletes, rather than just statistics. When an injury happens, it helps to know how to handle it.

“The stuff I have been through, it makes me who I am,” Lockette said. “All that made me tougher, it made me who I am. You have to connect (with athletes) to figure out how to connect with them. After that, they will do anything for you (on the field).

“(Injuries) are bigger than sports. I can happen at church, it can happen at the mall, it can happen on the highway.”

The father of two now lives in Atlanta and is the founder of the Ricardo Lockette Foundation. Part of the foundation’s purpose is to ensure funding for surgeries needed when someone takes a fall and cannot afford the associated medical costs.

“I don’t think that is fair,” Lockette said.

After his injury, gaining mobility was an uphill battle. He found himself having to use a walker, and in the beginning, it was an enormous task to pick up his leg and put one foot in front of the other.

“The doctors were not sure if it was going to take six months for me to walk or a year for me to walk; I just knew I was going to walk,” Lockette said. “I walked in three weeks, and walked alone in two months.

“It was more mental than anything. (The doctors) did an excellent job; I could be paralyzed.”

While a player, Lockette said his goal was to dominate — which he did by aiming directly at the chest and running through the face mask. He did not care about the consequences at the time, but now expresses appreciation for safety rules — specifically recent rule changes affecting quarterbacks on the field.

“I am sure a lot my guys don’t like it, but I think that it will make them safer,” Lockette said. “I would not like the rule change, but I appreciate it.”

He reminded the coaches that it is not their job to be a player’s friend. Each player has a different life story, and the player has to shut out their personal life and focus on the field. When issues come up, situations may need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

“Be prepared as if it was game day every day,” Lockette said.

He is the namesake of the Ricardo “Rocket” Lockette Award, given weekly to the special-teams player on the Seahawks team who best exemplifies work ethic, preparation and toughness. He is one of three coaches, all former NFL players, for his 8-year-old son’s football team.

Jennifer ParksJennifer Parks