“This is what I want people to understand: every part of me that makes me Patric Young, is still there.”
“The immediate fear of hitting somebody was in my mind. I was trying to get out of the way as fast as I could when hitting the brakes and turning. My [truck] went completely parallel to the road and kept sliding and flipped over one time. I tried to brace myself, as my body contorted and turned to the right with the momentum.
“I’m a calm person, nothing gets me rattled,” said Bennita. “If I panic, people will die. Listening to other people’s [traumatic accident] stories at Craig [hospital in Denver], it was just a moment. You can’t do the woulda, coulda, shoulda. “Fifty or 60 years ago, there’s no way I would have had an opportunity to live the life I have now with this type of injury,” said Young. “I don’t think I could have this much hope in modern medicine. But today, with education and understanding, it allows you to have a more normal life.
In December 2017, Shazier underwent surgery to stabilize his spine after a head-on tackle led to an injury that ended his playing career. Shazier, a two-time Pro Bowler, was paralyzed below the waist for a brief time, but was walking a few months later and even danced at his wedding in 2019. On Sunday, Shazier's foundation hosted a Spinal Cord Injury Street Fair at Pittsburgh's Bakery Square, an open-air office and shopping development, to provide a platform for people with spinal cord paralysis to share their stories.
“I think his motto is, ‘Why can’t I be that one percent that walks again? Why not me?,’ “ said Bennita. “His hope is not hanging on that, but I think he thinks it could happen.” The courtship of Patric and Whitney is a complicated, interesting story. They first met late in Young’s freshman year at UF at the since-demolished Cantina bar, a popular hangout with students and basketball players not far from Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on University Street.
Though she was already in the process of breaking up with her boyfriend, being pregnant quickly changed the relationship dynamic with Patric. “We became super intentional with our dating last year,” said Young. “I knew she was the woman I wanted to marry.” Among the traits Bennita admires most about her daughter-in-law is her attitude toward Patric’s ordeal.
“I’m determined in my life to make it up to my wife and make sure she still gets a chance to wear that wedding dress.” Many athletes recovering from all sorts of major injuries often express a determination to beat the expected recovery time. Young is no different. Patric was pushed significantly at Craig, which puts a heavy emphasis on patients leading a life of independence, even if they can’t do everything by themselves. He went to a Denver Broncos preseason game and got his first taste of dealing with navigating in public. It was less than ideal for wheelchair accessibility, Bennita says, because an area was closed off in the stadium and they ended up walking a fair distance out of their way to get back to their parking spot.
“I saw a lot of determination from Patric [in Denver] because he wanted to be in independent living,” Bennita said. “I’m not going to tell you he wasn’t exhausted at the end of days, but he’d get up the next morning ready to do it again.” There are so many details to iron out, and many of them Young can’t do alone, regardless of how independent he wants to be. His current loaner wheelchair won’t fit into the master bedroom at his Mandarin house, so he’s waiting on a custom-fitted model that likely won’t arrive until October.
Donovan says when you look at what Young has done in every facet of his life — as a student, an athlete, a humanitarian or working as an analyst for the SEC Network — there’s every reason to believe the high standards he set won’t change just because he’s in a wheelchair.
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