CINCINNATI -- Former University of Cincinnati star RB Isaiah Pead lost his left leg and suffered serious injuries to his right leg in a car crash last November.
Pead and his passenger, Bearcats teammate Wesley Richardson, detailed the crash in an interview with the Sporting News.
The two were on their way to meet some friends at a Waffle House near Pead's Columbus home when Pead's Cadillac CTS hit a bump along a curve on Interstate 670 and he lost control. The car went through a guard rail and fell into a forested area below the highway. Pead, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was found 30 feet from the vehicle.
"I was screaming to see if he’d respond," Richardson told the Sporting News. "I looked to my left and saw his leg right there in the middle of the car on the arm rest going toward the back of car. I didn’t know if he was punched into the back and his leg was sticking out, but the entire back of the car was smashed down. If anyone was sitting there, they would have been crushed."
Pead, 26, was a star runningback at UC, where he was named the 2011 BIG EAST Conference Offensive Player of the Yar and MVP in the Liberty Bowl. He was later drafted by the St. Louis Rams.
Now, Pead is the father of a 7-month-old boy, the Sporting News reported. He currently uses crutches and is waiting for a prosthetic leg, but still works out.
Despite the career-ending injury, he has a positive attitude. He's working on a vehicle-moving service and plans to help out others who suffer similar physical losses.
"I want to continue to be a motivator to whatever I come across," he said. “That starts with myself, looking at myself in the mirror every day — a full body mirror," he told the Sporting News. "You can see, you know, half of me. I'm my own inspiration, literally."
Read the full story hereon the Sporting News.
