Four pops.
Five years later, and Chris 

Bryant can still hear the 
sounds.

It was the week before 

Michigan’s 
season 
opener 

against Alabama in the 2012 
season 
opener 
at 
AT&T 

Stadium. 
According 
to 

Bryant, a redshirt freshman 
at the time, he was on the 
verge of starting at left guard 
after a heated competition 
throughout fall camp. His 
parents 
had 
even 
booked 

flights to Dallas and couldn’t 
stop talking about how fired 
up they were to see him play.

“Three 
or 
four 
days” 

before kickoff, Bryant was 
participating in a routine 
offense-versus-defense drill. 

The running back made a 
cut. Someone fell on Bryant’s 
leg, and he heard the terrible 
noises — the sounds of a 
fractured tibia.

It was the first serious 

injury 
of 
Bryant’s 
career. 

Instead of flying to Texas, his 
parents went to Ann Arbor 
to talk to doctors about the 
medical procedures their son 
would have to undergo.

“It 
was 
very 
hurtful,” 

recalled Eric Bryant, Chris’s 
father. “You start focusing 
on how he’s feeling because I 
know it’s devastating for him 
more so than for myself or for 
my wife. But it’s a pain that you 
can’t really describe because 
you don’t want to show too 
much of that emotion to him 
because then that would only 
make him feel even worse.”

Over the course of the 

next year, Bryant underwent 
an 
arduous 
rehabilitation 

process. His leg never healed 
the way he wanted it to. Still, 
he was able to work himself 
back onto the field, drawing 
a spot in the lineup against 
Minnesota on Oct. 5. His 
return didn’t last long.

Just 
like 
the 
first 

catastrophic injury, Bryant 
can still describe the second 
in full detail. 

It was a routine double 

block. 
He 
had 
his 
own 

assignment and threw his arm 
out for an assist — where it 
got “completely thrown back.”

“I just felt a bunch of tears,” 

Bryant said, “all through my 
shoulder.”

He gritted his teeth and 

finished the game. In the 
following 
days, 
he 
tried 

desperately to tough it out, 

hiding his full symptoms from 
doctors, hoping he could play 
the next week at Penn State.

“This was my opportunity,” 

Bryant said. “I sat out a whole 
year, not about to sit out 
another year.”

But 
by 
the 
time 
the 

Wolverines had lost in triple 
overtime to the Nittany Lions, 
Bryant knew he had to get his 
shoulder looked at.

The 
diagnosis? 
A 
torn 

rotator cuff, with damage 
to other ligaments and the 
rest of the shoulder. And 
at that point, Bryant had a 
big decision to make. Was 
continuing his playing career 
worth it?

“Just came to a point where 

(you look) 20 years down the 
road,” Bryant said. “Do you 
want to be able to go outside 
in the backyard to throw a 

football with your kids?”

One night, Bryant spoke 

to his mother, Joy, over the 
phone. 
His 
injuries 
had 

constantly bothered her and 
she told him as much. She also 
told him about an intuition 
that had come to her.

“It was like I was dreaming, 

it was like God was shaking 
me, and I understood now, it 
was like a puzzle being put 
together,” Joy said. “It came 
to me, and that morning 
when I got up — we talk every 
morning — I said, ‘Christian, 
God spoke to me and told 
me for you to stop playing 
football, because he has a 
better plan for you. He told me 
to tell you to just give it up.’

“I said, ‘When you go to 

bed, you talk to God like you 
talk to me, and he’ll give you 
the answer.’ That night he 
did, and he said, ‘Okay, mom, 
I’m going to the coach and 
I’m going to let him know I’m 
taking a medical.’ ”

Chris 
Bryant’s 
football 

career — what had led him to 
Ann Arbor in the first place — 
was over.

“That’s 

what I’d been 
known for my 
whole life — 
as a football 
player,” 
Bryant, now 
Michigan’s 
director 
of 

high 
school 

relations, 
said. 
“To 

actually 
have to close 
that chapter 
and open up 
another one, 
it was tough. 
Took a while to get over it.

“A lot of long nights just 

crying, man. It was just a hard 
feeling.”

***

It took Bryant a “couple 

months” to deal with the end 
of his career.

He met with famed sports 

psychologist Greg Harden. His 
parents reassured him that 
things would turn out okay 
and told him that he would 
find his true calling. Bryant’s 
relationship with Brady Hoke 
developed quickly as well, 
especially in the aftermath of 
his second injury. The head 
coach met with Bryant often, 

checking up on him regularly 
and prodding him to think 
about his options. Did he 
want to coach? Did he want to 
recruit?

“Coach 
Hoke 
supported 

me the whole way,” Bryant 
said, “and sat me down until 
I found out what I wanted to 
do.”

And it just so happened that 

one of Bryant’s best friends 
was in a “very, very similar 
situation.”

Antonio Poole, a linebacker 

signed in the same class as 
Bryant, never played a snap 
due to two injuries — a torn 
pectoral 
and 
a 
ruptured 

Achilles tendon.

The two were roommates 

freshman year. At the time, 
they couldn’t have known 
what they were in for. But 
their friendship only grew 
as the pair bonded over their 
shared misfortunes.

“I was just like, ‘Damn, 

one of us gotta stay healthy, 
man,’ ” Poole said. “It was just 
funny, every time one of us got 
hurt, the other got hurt, and 
after that, we just bonded. It 

was just trying 
to 
keep 
each 

other’s 
spirits 

up, 
because 

coming 
there 

to play football 
and then things 
didn’t 
go 
the 

way we thought 
they would. We 
pushed 
each 

other 
through 

our rehab and 
continued 
to 

push each other 
and keep our 
spirits up after 
our 
football 

careers were over.”

Poole was the first to hang 

up the cleats. After Bryant 
followed suit, Poole found 
himself giving advice. They 
talked about ways to cope. 
About 
life 
after 
football. 

About finding a new identity.

Poole realized he couldn’t 

leave the game completely 
behind 
and 
became 
a 

recruiting assistant. Bryant 
was his first recruit.

“Yeah, I remember I told 

(Bryant), that was one of the 
great ways to stay part of the 
team, just helping out,” Poole 
said. “He asked me, ‘How was 
it?’ I said, ‘At first, you’ll be 

Football Saturday, October 7, 2017
4

In end of a career, Bryant finds peace

ORION SANG

Daily Sports Editor

COURTESY OF THE BRYANT FAMILY

Chris Bryant saw limited playing time as an offensive lineman in Ann Arbor due to a laundry list of injuries, but found a new role in the Michigan program.

I found a way, 

and I don’t 
know all the 
answers, but 
I know a way 
that I got here.

