Airports are always busy. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is no different either. You have people from all across the entire globe coming and going running. The sound of suitcases rolling and footsteps is all you can hear. The smell from many food restaurants gives the airport an odd uneasy smell. Jacob Sumner is an employee who works at Swissport. He played high school football for a while but had to stop because of a dangerous concussion he received.

There we were sitting at a food court in the airport after 3 hours of working. The subway sandwich that bro was eating did not look like something someone wanted for lunch after a hard work. Jacob was in his mid-twenties, had reddish white skin and was short but bulky. He walked with his legs far apart and hunched back. He played as running back for the trash ass Federal Way high school and according to him he was “nasty”.

As we sat for lunch I asked Jacob what he thought about his football days. “Man I really missed those days football use to be my thing It helped me keep good grades cuz if I wanted to play I would have to pass all my classes”. He pulled up his highlights on his phone and showed me a few of his good plays. “Thats me right there”. He says as he points to someone on running the ball for a good 30 yards. “I use to be so filthy when I played” he said with a little sadness in his voice. “If you really liked it what made you stop” I inquired as I took a sip from my gatorade.  

“I got a concussion, a very dangerous one”, his voice trailed off as you can see him starting to get emotional. I knew it must’ve been hard for him because he got quiet. I felt bad for him. For some reason the airport got quiet at the moment when he said he got a concussion. You couldn’t even hear the loud ass planes.

I was reluctant to ask but I still did. “How did you get the concussion”, i wondered as I finished off my drink. “I’ll tell you but first let’s get back to work, our plane should’ve landed by now”. We got up cleaned up our table and started walking back to the bagwell. “It hurt” he said out of nowhere, “huh whatchu talking about” I asked failing to remember I was interviewing him. “The concussion, it hurt” he said.

“How long were you out for when you got the concussion” I wondered. His reply was not what I was expecting to hear. “That concussion wasn’t a season ender, it was a career ender”. I stopped walking. The noise returned to the airport. It seemed like time unfreezed.

We went back to the bagwell and our manager D started annoying us with his stinky breath. “Get to work you two” he shouts, his breath making us about to barf. We walked over to our containers and started to throw bags into it. It was quiet for five minutes and I didn’t want to ask Jacob if about the concussion. He was quiet while tossing bags into the cans like a sad boy throwing rocks into the river. Finally after about thirty minutes of silence, Jacob came over to me and we continued the interview.

“Want to know how I got the concussion? It happened so fast.” Jacob sadly sighed. “I was playing running back against a team in Kent,” he couldn’t remember the team he was playing. “ it was the 3rd quarter and we were down by 7. It was 2nd 6 and the coach wanted us to do a small run to make us grab the 1st down. The play was on.”

“I was running the ball trying to grab us the 6 yards but I decided to push more and run a good 40 yards to the endzone and tie the game. Everything was going smoothly and then out of nowhere I was laid flat on my back,” His voice started to get intense. You could feel the energy rising within his body as he recalled this tragic event. I didn’t know if he was getting angry or emotional. He was looking down reminiscing the day.

“I don’t remember a thing. Everything was fading away.the sounds of the players, the coach and the audience who came to watch. I felt nothing but fear and panic. The pain didn’t sink in yet. Finally everything was black.” I stood there in shock after hearing all this, as no one would be able to think straight after hearing all this. “ I woke up in the emergency room. toss me that bag bro” he said while pointing to a suitcase coming our way. “Wheeew that bag stinks” he laughed while tossing it away.

“ But yea after that I was in a lot of pain and had to take medication.”

“What did you do after you got better” I asked wondering what I just heard.

“I decided to quit football, I was out for the rest of the season and football was the only good thing about school and the only reason why I went.” That’s right, Jacob stopped going to school. Football was all he did in high school, it kept his grades up because with bad grades you can’t play so it helped him stay good in school. It also kept him busy with something to do as he spent most of his time working out and practicing and studying his playbook always getting ready for the next game.

That was all over after he got injured and never wanted to go back on the field. Jacob quit. “What was the one thing you regret” I asked ready to wrap this interview up. “To be honest with you the one thing I regret the most was running away after getting hurt. I should’ve tried again and had a better next season”

One thing Jacob told me to remember is that life will knock you down from doing what you love, but if you’re true to yourself you’ll keep persevering and keep getting back up. Life is an asshole but the way I see it you can either run from it or learn from your mistakes. Keep pushing yourself to better and the next time life knocks you down, just get back up and whoop its ass.