Rutgers legend and WWE Warrior Award recipient Eric LeGrand recently appeared on Scoop B Radio to discuss wrestling, sneakers, Christopher Reeves, Superman, The Rock, the current state of Rutgers football AND the time in high school he played against former Lakers center Andrew Bynum. Below are some interview highlights along with the full interview in the player above.
B: So a report came out in the Asbury Support Press the other day that the foundation’s paralysis resource center will be cut at 13 percent this year.
E: That is not the whole thing. They cut it 13 percent last year.
B: So they cut it last year?
E: 13 percent and now they are going to completely cut the funding for the Paralysis Resource Center.
B: How does that affect you?
E: It is terrible for the whole community. The resource center is what I use when I first got hurt. You don’t think about paralysis until somebody you know or you are directly affected by it. So when you first get hurt having that resource center to be able to go to it teaches you what to look out for how to take care of yourself, what rehabs to go to, what rehabs to do you know, peer mentors things like that is what the Paralysis Resource center does and when you cut that now everyone who is newly injured they have nowhere to go. This is offered for free to people just go on a website and wow I can learn all about a spinal cord injury right here. Now you are going to cut that funding away unfortunately injuries aren’t stopping they happen every 45 minutes. Until we find a cure for it we need that resource center and it is just terrible that in President Trumps 2018 budget he is cutting it.
B: Christopher Reeves was that dude. How much did he inspire you?
E: Man he inspires me to live his dream there is a world with wheelchairs and unfortunately he passed away 11 or 12 years ago now but I feel like that torch was passed along to me now. To finish his goal which is to find a cure for paralysis.
B: Do you speak to any of his family members or have any of them reached out to you?
E: Oh yeah I talk to his kids. I know his kids very well. He has two from his first marriage and then Marie who works at ESPN is the youngest, she is younger than me from when he was married to Dana Reeve. So I get to talk to them and we catch up every year at the gala that they have in November I will be in D.C. at the end of the month. So I will be down there with his daughter. So I have gotten to talk to his kids a lot.
B: So were you actually superman fan growing up?
E: I do watch Superman but I will tell you what I could watch Batman. I was more of a Batman guy than a Superman guy. But Superman was always that super strength super strong and I always tried to be the strongest guy. But I was more a Batman guy growing up.
B: Which leads to my next question which I was going to ask you are you more a D.C. comics or Marvel guy so Ill remix that question a little bit. Did you watch the old 1960 batman with Adam West and Burt Ward?
E: I didn’t watch any of that. When I first got hurt I didn’t know who Christopher Reeves was and my mom came up to me and was like Christopher Reeve foundation is reaching out and like this and that. I was like who is that? She goes are you kidding me? You don’t know who Christopher Reeves is? I was like no am I supposed to? He was the original Superman and I was like oh I was born in 1990 I don’t know.
B: That is crazy because you know like my sister she is twenty and I will tease her and say “You don’t know who Michael Jordan is.” You know him when he played for the Wizards I can say the same for you. He won those championships when you were one.
E: Exactly so that is why when people compare Michael Jordan you know I am a Jordan guy I watched his highlights and everything. I remember watching him as a kid but I always say to people I wish I could watch Jordan now at the age I am now when I fully understand the game and can make an argument about it. You know I hear everyone talk about him and when I was younger. I wish I was 25 or 26 years old being able to watch Michael Jordan play and be like wow that is greatness.
B: Yeah because I think the way people are talking about Steph Curry and Lebron James and Kyrie and Durant and all those guys it feels very 90s like again. The way that the Bulls had you know they had the two three piece.
E: Yeah I know and it’s crazy people say Jordan didn’t retire for that year and a half that he could have won 8 in a row and Hykeem wouldn’t have gotten those rings.
B: Well I don’t know if you were paying attention but did you see the interview that went viral with Kenny the Jet Smith talking about weather if Michael didn’t retire in 94?
E: Oh somebody said they would have beat Jordan and them anyway?
B: So check this out do you know why they are having this conversation?
E: Why?
B: Because I did an interview with Kenny Smith that went viral right here on Scoop B Radio where I asked him Had Michael Jordan not retired would the Bulls have won 8 straight championships and he said that the Rockets would have beat the bulls. So it started a whole conversation for about three weeks and that came from my interview.
E: That is crazy I didn’t know that. There is man no way if Jordan won three in a row and came back and again won three in a row there is no way you are stopping him. I don’t care what nobody say.
B: But you know what here is the thing the Bulls in 94 almost went to the finals you know the Bulls played the Knick in the conference finals and they lost to the Knicks. Then that was the summer that they had the OJ case, the NBA finals were going on during the OJ case. The next year they played the Orlando Magic they lost to the Magic in the conference finals. Do you remember that?
E: No I don’t remember but what I am saying is if Jordan is there they win.
B: Hands down?
E: If Jordan is there they win without a doubt.
B: If you said it I’m gonna go with it.
E: I’m reppin Jordan until the day I die man that is my guy. Watching his highlights now and understanding the game seeing his greatness and when people talk about it just pumps me up.
B: I dig it. I got a question what is your motivation to keep going after your injury?
E: Honestly it is just the people that support me and the random people that are looking up to me. I feel that it is a responsibility how can I let all those people down. My motivation is my Mom who gave up everything for me to learn how to take care of a quadriplegic. I want to get better for her so she doesn’t have to take care of her son for her whole life you know so she can be able to relax and do what she wants to do. Another guy by the name of Adam Taliaferro a guy from Penn State football player who got hurt in 2000 playing against Ohio State the doctor gave him pretty much the same prognosis as me, never walk again never do this, never do that and then he led his team out the rest of the year against the Miami hurricane. I feel like in this world we are living in today either through the grace of God or my sheer stubbornness or some type of technology we will find a cure for this. It’s just crazy how fast technology is growing and what we are doing with it now. That is my motivations and to get everyone else out of these wheelchairs as well.
B: I am curious do you find that people who are in a similar state as you are as upbeat as you? What is the gauge that you get on people as far as their mental?
E: It all depends on their situation. This injury doesn’t discriminate and people come from all walks of life with this injury. You can have people that are happily married with kids or you could get somebody who is 15 years old and in high school with this injury.
So everyone is mental is different. You could get a gang member who just got shot or you could have somebody who got into a car accident. People’s mindset is different. Some people have a lot of support some people have no support. So everybody’s mental is different so you gotta have that one same thing if you want to be able to deal with this and you have to believe you just have to that you will be alright and you will get better and if you do your part. That is the one thing I try to tell people. If you don’t believe that you are going to get better than you are not.
B: How much do you feel your sports background played a part in how upbeat you are?
E: My sports background especially with going to therapy and that kind of thing doing things I don’t want to do my entire life I feel like I was doing things I didn’t want to do. You know everyone doesn’t want to go practice everyone doesn’t want to go to the weight room all the time you know what I mean? But as an athlete you are forced to do that you are forced to do it. If you want to get better than you have to do it. So when it came to this injury I knew what I needed to do and I knew that mind set I needed to grind. It’s a different grind now then you know working to play football but hey I got the mental I am ready to go. You can throw anything at me football has thrown a lot at me in dealing with life and anything that is mentally challenge I am ready for it.
B: Here is a questions when I was in grad school I was working out I was playing basketball and I tore my ACL and I use this analogy often. I felt like you know when you go the wing spot and you get the little wings and you pull the wing in half. That is how it felt when my knee popped. I knew when I tore it that it was a torn ACL. If I may, when you sustained that injury against North Carolina what was your thought process, did you know that, that was going to be the end result? Where you even in that mental mind set what were you thinking?
E: Well it’s actually when I got hurt, when I broke my neck I didn’t feel anything. My body went completely numb. So people ask me did it hurt or anything and I say no because my body went numb and I couldn’t breath so that was the scariest part. But from there it went from not being able to breath to not being able to move so I was like maybe I just have a full body shock. I’ll be ok in a few minutes then they lifted me up and I caught a gasp of air for a second, so I said ok I knocked the wind out of myself because that is exactly what it felt like, like I knocked the wind out of myself. So then I was like maybe it will all come back to me in a second but other than that I thought I was going to be ok, I didn’t think I was going to be hurt.
B: It sounds very Rocky Balboa like in the fact that you have been able to triumph and that people are behind you. Are you by chance a Rocky fan?
E: Say that again I’m sorry.
B: I was saying it sounds very Rocky Balboa like the way that you are able to triumph and you are able to motivate people. When you watch Rocky movies people follow him
because he is an everyday guy.
E: See that is exactly how I try to work. When I see people in there. I try to show people I am just a regular dude with a big heart and I am out here fighting the good fight and I am trying to move people and motivate people but I want to show them that I am just a regular dude from the suburbs man. I was blessed with the chance to play the game of football at the highest level and you know it doesn’t mean that I am not a normal person. I grind really hard and I work really hard. You know I dot my Ts and I do the same thing just like a regular person
B: How is your health currently?
E: Oh I’m great. I am very blessed and very fortunate for my health and the care system that I have. With the nurses that I have and everything I am very healthy right now. Thank God. I always have to worry about that with these injuries because I am not moving around as much as somebody else. I rarely get sick and when I do I am the biggest baby in the world I am not going to lie because I am not used to being sick because I am very healthy. Thank God.
B: Do you feel that people pay more attention to you now than when you were able bodied?
E: Yeah I think I have a different group of people. When I played football I had a group of people that followed football who knew who I was but now I feel like it has taken off more than just football it’s people that are going through all kinds of adversity so it touches everybody not just the people that enjoy sports or football.
B:Those prove people wrong tank tops are kind of lit tell me more about them and how people can nab them online.
E: Yeah those are dope man I have been able to work with prove people wrong now three or four different concepts with the t shirts a hoodie a hat and now a tank top and people can go to prove people wrong dot come and get them. Part of the proceeds go to my foundation and you get a really cool shirt and the material hey the material that they have is incredible everyone that I talk to that gets the shirts or the hoodie are like wow this is like what kind of material is there where is it from and I am excited to partner with them. I always love the work that we do.
B: As you were saying that I was getting ready to get a flashback. Have you ever seen the movie Shaft with Samuel L Jackson?
E: Yeah!
B: Remember when he said “ This is Egyptian cotton 220 thread”.
E: Now you are coming at me with some Shaft references on my prove people wrong hoodie.
B: Yes sir yes sir. Question what do you think of the direction of the current Rutgers football team?
E: I think they are, everything off the field they are doing amazing. They are getting the fundraising they are getting everyone to believe in the hype. Now on the field they just got to go out there and get the job done. Last year they probably had two wins and they were getting blown out. This year I believe they could get six or more wins this year if everything goes right and then you really start to get people to believe and you start to get these recruits to believe when you start doing that. So I really really hope that they are going to make that improvement on the field. I can see it everywhere else now it just has to happen on the field.
B: Sure. Rutgers has Chris Askins as coach he comes out of Ohio State. I believe he is entering in second year what do you like about his system?
E: I like his system. It’s kind of like Sheana like when I was there and that is kind of what it needs to be like. Hard nose, grinding, gritty you gotta work for everything you want nothing is going to be handed to you and you know you have to go through all the details, attention to details you can’t skip out on any of that stuff that is the kind of coach he is. That’s how Coach Schiano was. Every attention to detail was our focus on everything. You couldn’t miss out on something because if you do then we weren’t going to win. Coach Schiano’s big thing was if we weren’t the most talented we were always going to be the toughest players out on the football field no matter who we played we were going to be tougher than what he used to put us through. I can see the similarities with which coach has.
B: Do you think Rutgers is over there head in the big 10?
E: I don’t think they are over their head at all. It is going to be a while until they are up there with the Ohio States and the Michigan’s you know. They have been doing and performing well and that greatness has been there for so long, it is going to take a while before Rutgers can get there. Around here in the New York New Jersey area where we are it gives you so much going on between all the different teams. New York/ New Jersey we are a pro sports area we aren’t like a college town you got the Knicks, you got the Brooklyn Nets you got the New Jersey Devils, the New York Rangers, You got the New York Giants, The New York Jets, we are a pro sports city. So to get people on board with college you have to win. You have to win and with the players we have around here you can’t do it. They just got to get these players believing. But that is the biggest thing now with this new generation people are actually growing up Rutgers fans. When I was growing up no one was a Rutgers fan. People are now growing up Rutgers fans which is cool to see.
B: Yeah because you guys set the foundation. You had Tito on the team you had Mike Teel, Ray Rice, you had Kenny Britt, The McCourty twins….
E: That generation that was there when Sanew was there he made, he put Rutgers on the map and he made us a relevant program nationally and we put guys in the NFL and now Coach Ash has to take that to the next level. He has been at those programs and now it is time for him to take that step and be able to compete in the big ten and show that we are here to stay. Wouldn’t you do that? Once you see all these college people oh yeah I love Rutgers this is the guy I’ve been supporting Rutgers for blah blah blah. So now these young kids who watch Racy Rice, who watched Sanu and the Macody twins growing up they are going to be the generation that goes to Rutgers now and stays home.
B: You have all come a long way since Paul Robeson was there?
E: Oh yeah
B: How do you get guys to stay in New Jersey and play football at Rutgers?
E: It is not easy because you have these big schools coming at them and these big schools have a lot to offer. We have a great system when it comes to academic wise it is one of the top program colleges in the country when it comes to business schools and stuff like that you can do anything at Rutgers but you gotta get those guys that want to have that Jersey pride but I stay at home even if you are from New York or Eastern PA, Connecticut stay home want to play in front of you family want to stay. If I held up my recruitment I probably could have played anywhere in the country but I lived 20 minutes from Rutgers and I said you know what I am going to stay here why go somewhere else and take my time. I have this University right here that I can represent this is Jersey people always love to talk about Jersey this and Jersey that but Anthony Davis said it best if you go somewhere else and you had a scholarship to Rutgers I don’t want to hear anything about Jersey this, Jersey that because you have this right here in your back yard where you can really represent Jersey.
B: Who in sports motivates you?
E: I would say Michael Jordan for his greatest sheer will and determination and never give up and the fight no matter what. The biggest moments never gave up. You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. He showed that he was able to do that and also I would say Peyton Manning I am a die hard Denver Broncos fan so watching him come back from that neck injury and go through everything and people telling him he was never going to be able to play again never be able to do this or do that to be able to win a super bowl with the Denver Broncos was amazing to see.
B: You speak all over the country you motivate people what do you do for fun in your own time?
E: Oh man I love to spend time with my friends. I travel we are heading down to Miami next month, I go on family vacations, I go to Costa Rica in August you know I love traveling. Even when you can’t travel just getting together with your friends and laugh and having everyone come over to the crib and we all sit down and watch a game or joke around and make fun of each other that is the stuff I don’t take for granted anymore because most of the time I can’t get up and just go do it myself. I have to ask someone to bring me here and do this so anytime I can get together with my guys that’s the moments I live for.
B: Two more questions. The best advice that you ever received was?
E: Best advice I ever received was like I said you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. I talk about it all the time in my speeches you know in situations in life we get uncomfortable and people fold when they are uncomfortable. They don’t know how to react but if you, i feel like i can handle every situation from what I learned at Rutgers. I was always uncomfortable there Coach put us at uncomfortable weights for that reason. I feel like now in life you dealing with an uncomfortable situation like Diddy said in the Biggie movie he said I’m gonna throw my beats he is gonna have everyone dancing and then he is gonna come out with that Chinchilla on. That’s how I feel man. You tell me to jump and I am going to come out with that Chinchilla on like Diddy. He is gonna have everyone dancing .
B: You know you gave me another flash back I was thinking that clip my niece was four when she first felt chinchilla
E: I was gone for a minute now I’m back Chinchilla it’s all about a pimp.
B: There you go there you go. Last question you are the best thing since slice bread what was the best thing before sliced bread?
E: The best thing before sliced bread. I don’t know. I feel like we are all put here for our purpose and we need to find that purpose in our life. I feel like mine is to help people get through adversity and I know that God has a plan for me and that miracle is going to happen and I can go back to that 25 yard line and I can just show that the hard work determination and faith anything is possible in this world.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
