Denver Broncos Nate Irving relives horrific auto accident that changed his life
When Nate Irving was drafted as middle linebacker by the Denver Broncos with their 67th pick in the third round of the 2011 National Football League (NFL) Draft, all he could think about was how lucky he was to be alive after a horrific incident
that occurred almost two years back.
The night in question was a perfectly normal one to begin with. But everything took a turn for the worse when Irving fell asleep behind the wheel of his vehicle and drove the SUV into two trees and a ditch. His truck was totalled, his body was broken and
his life seemed to be at an end.
"I felt like God had better plans for me than to sit in that ditch and die," said Irving.
Irving sustained a compound fracture in his left leg and a collapsed lung and was then charged with reckless and careless driving after he was underwent surgery and came out looking like a mummy, covered in bandages.
Irving has a cross and the date June 28, 2009 tattooed on the inside of his left forearm and spoke about the incident after he was drafted by the Broncos.
"It's not a reminder to me," Irving said. "It's a day I will never forget. It's just part of my story. When someone asks what it's about then I can share what I went through and maybe they're going through something and realize that if I could make it through
that, then they can make it through whatever they're going through."
He also said that the image of his mangled body is imprinted in his mind from the first time he looked at himself in the mirror at the hospital. His totalled Chevy Tahoe SUV’s pictures are also saved in his mobile phone to remind him how lucky he is to be
alive. His family wouldn’t let him hide from reality and go into depression so the entire family sat down to discuss what had happened and how it affected everyone. It was tough for him and he didn’t like it at all but it had to be done.
The first time he looked in the mirror, Irving looked past his broken body and looked further to a person that he didn’t like. He believes that he is not the same nasty, immature and smug person he was before the horrific accident that changed his life.
Strangely enough, Irving does not regret driving from his home in Wallace, North Carolina to North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, a distance of 90 miles of 145 kilometres at 3:00 AM in Interstate 40. He believes that his separated
shoulder, broken rib, collapsed lung and fractured leg was actually a blessing masked in pain.
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