MACON — Chrishaad Rupert sat in the car with his arms hanging at his sides.
He couldn’t move them.
Rupert, a junior wide receiver at Noxubee County High School, had never had a serious injury playing football before. He never expected one, and he never prepared for one.
So just like the hit that he’ll never forget, he never saw it coming.
‘Don’t give up’
It came in Senatobia on Nov. 15, in the second round of the MHSAA Class 3A playoffs. The Tigers tried a trick play, but Rupert fumbled the ball. Instead of falling on it, he went to scoop it up and keep running. That’s when a Warriors defender blindsided him, his shoulder connecting with Rupert’s neck.
Rupert tried to get up off the turf, but he realized his arms wouldn’t move. Team personnel got him up, and Rupert’s legs — perfectly fine — did the rest.
He was taken to the emergency room at North Oak Regional Medical Center in an ambulance.
“It was scary,” Rupert said.
Rupert was diagnosed with a cervical sprain, meaning a muscle or ligament in his neck had been stretched or torn. He got a steroid injection and some pain medication.
He was lucky, relatively speaking, but he was told what he didn’t want to hear: His junior season was over.
“I don’t like being off the field,” Rupert said. “I like playing football.”
But Rupert, still unable to move his arms, had bigger worries. While Noxubee County finished off its shutout win, Rupert’s aunt, Patricia Taylor-Ramsey, drove him back to Macon.
“She was trying to give me pep talks: ‘Don’t give up,’ stuff like that,” Rupert said.
Rupert didn’t, and the next morning, he could move his arms again. But the pain in his neck hadn’t gone away.
‘I wish he was out there with us’
Despite the pain, despite the risk, despite the doctor’s timeline, Rupert still wanted to play in Friday’s state championship game.
Then he talked with his mom.
No, she told him. Don’t get hurt worse.
“I really didn’t disagree because mamas know best,” Rupert said.
He dreams of playing in the NFL and wants to go to Mississippi State, Ole Miss or Oregon to play in college. Risking it to play Friday wouldn’t be wise, Rupert knew, but the thought of being unable to play with his teammates was hard to bear.
“I wish he was out there with us,” junior defensive lineman Travorus Hatcher said. “He’s one of the key players in our receiving corps, and I just hate that he couldn’t play his junior year out with us.”
Rupert had 376 receiving yards this season and slotted in as one of the Tigers’ best wideouts, alongside Jeffery Malone, Coby Lockett and Jaqualon Sherrod.
“He went through the struggle and the grind with us,” Noxubee County head coach Teddy Young said. He played a big part in the season, getting us to the playoffs and getting us where we’re at.”
The Tigers could have used Rupert on the field Friday rather than on the sidelines, too. Plenty of drops from the Noxubee County receiving corps played a big role in the Tigers’ 25-15 loss, and Rupert’s absence exacerbated the problems.
“He’s one of our better receivers in the one on one,” Young said. “He runs great routes, and we truly could have used him tonight.”
Rupert tried his hardest. He attempted to practice a couple of times, Hatcher said, but the pain in his neck was too much.
So Friday morning, when the state championship game kicked off, Rupert found himself watching from the Tigers’ sideline. He could only watch as his team fell to Jefferson Davis County, 25-15.
“I don’t like it, because I like being out here, competing with my teammates and stuff,” Rupert said. “I can have fun with them, but (it’s) kind of sad.”
Looking ahead
Rupert still feels guilty about the play that got him hurt.
“I was kind of sad and mad, because I knew I could have done that play better,” he said. “I just knew it was my fault.”
Reminders of the play still linger. The stiffness he feels in his neck when it’s cold outside. Three days of ice on his neck, then Tiger Balm. The pain pills he has to take every six hours. How he has to hold his neck straight, so it won’t hurt.
But he’s looking ahead, too.
Rupert expects to be completely fine come springtime. That means spring football practice — and track season, where he wants to compete for the first time.
And not long afterward, he’ll be back on the field for his senior season with the teammates he missed.
“Most of them are family members, and I’m gonna miss playing with them,” Rupert said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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