Injury Ended Keith Mitchell's NFL Career, But Not His Life
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — It was the NFL play that ended an all-pro career in an instant.
"I was just thinking: 'If I move my head, my body will follow, but it didn't,' " Keith Mitchell said.
Mitchell played in the NFL from 1997-2003 before suffering a spinal contusion that ended his career and jeopardized his ability to walk.
"The doctors had told me that they didn't know what was going on," Mitchell said.
Here's how Mitchell was injured:
http://vodtv.cbslocal.com.edgesuite.net/lax/553/15/10/29/3313367/3313367_B1C56FB927A1455CB6CA4B9482B0893A_151029_3313367_Keith_Mitchell_Injured_In_Game_In_2003_400.mp4
Now, Mitchell has found a new way of living through yoga.
"I have a new way of being, and it's to do the compassionate thing, create patience, build that empathy, and I love it. I love where we are now," Mitchell said.
Where Mitchell is now, is teaching yoga and meditation, quite a departure from the first career he had as an all-pro linebacker in the NFL.
"I had no peace; that's why I played football," Mitchell told CBS2/KCAL9's Gina Miller, who wrote about it.
"I thought football would bring me peace, but football was one of those things that allowed me to mask those ... things that I had been through in my life," he added.
Mitchell came to this conclusion through necessity, when in 2003 while with the Jacksonville Jaguars, he made a seemingly routine tackle but could not get up.
He had suffered a spinal contusion and was paralyzed from the neck down for about six months.
"My nervous system had been knocked out of whack for me. ... All I could do was breathe my way through it," Mitchell said.
To start the healing process, Mitchell discovered yoga and meditation, which allowed him to refocus the energy that made him an all-pro football player.
"My identity, the football player, was disappearing. I was doing everything I could to hold onto it," Mitchell said.
"For me, conscious breathing was one of those things that allowed me to open the chapter of Keith and who was Keith," he added.
Mitchell is now a master certified yoga and meditation instructor who teaches across the country, breaking stereotypes along the way.
"What we're building now is the team of being human, and building that camaraderie and that concept of community," Mitchell said.
"Yoga defintely saved my life. Mediation and yoga, it's really all combined, the whole mindfulness aspect of living saved my life," he added.