Football remains Chase Roberts’ first thought when he wakes up every morning. He has played his final snap for Georgia Tech, but the instinct still lingers.
“Football is a 24/7 job,” he said. Even in the summer, “you’re up in the morning for workouts, you’re probably coming back in the afternoon for practice or to go over film or something.”
Roberts has tried to channel that drive into a summer internship. When classes at Tech begin Aug. 18, he wants to apply the intensity he reserved for playing offensive tackle for the Yellow Jackets to his schoolwork. A concussion may have concluded his playing career at one season and eight games, but he is not grumbling over his fate.
“I’ve stepped back and said, ‘You only have two choices” of how to respond, Roberts said. “I’m going to go with the one that I think can be the most productive.”
Earlier this month, Roberts was put on a medical scholarship, ending his career. He suffered a concussion Nov. 14 against Clemson and was never cleared to play, continuing to experience symptoms such as light-headedness and loss of balance after intense exercise, even months after the injury. Jay Shoop, Tech’s director of sports medicine, called Roberts’ case unusual but not unprecedented.
“You look at Chase and his family, they did everything possible,” Shoop said. “He had great desire to continue to play, but with the symptoms that he incurred, I think all parties felt like this was the best for him.”
Roberts was knocked cold while trying to stop a Clemson defender returning an interception early in the fourth quarter of Tech’s 55-31 loss to the Tigers. Roberts fell to the ground trying to bring down Clemson cornerback Bashaud Breeland, colliding with A-back Robert Godhigh. While Godhigh popped up from the seemingly benign contact, Roberts rolled onto his back and did not get up. He was tended to by Tech’s medical staff before getting up after several harrowing moments.
Looking back, Roberts isn’t sure if perhaps he had unknowingly suffered a concussion earlier in the game or even in a prior game. He stayed overnight at a hospital near Clemson. When he woke up, he said, the last thing he remembered was putting on a shirt at the team hotel preparing to go downstairs for the pregame meal.
“Talk about surreal,” he said. “It was crazy.”
After the injury, Roberts said he was largely confined to sleeping and staying in dark rooms. He talked little and couldn’t go to class.
He took incomplete grades in classes and did not attempt to practice for the remainder of the season. He did not take part in spring practice, either, and Shoop said that even putting on a helmet one time aggravated his condition.
Into the summer, Roberts was able to increase the intensity of his workouts, but never to a point where a return to football could be considered. His hope that perhaps he would wake up one morning and be rid of the symptoms. Giving up the game and team he loved became the only reasonable choice.
“Logically, it was very obvious, but emotionally, it was and still is one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made,” he said.
Roberts’ career ends on a bittersweet note. Roberts, whose father Scott graduated from Tech, took over at right tackle midway through his redshirt freshman season last year, starting four games. Arriving at Tech in 2012 from Greater Atlanta Christian and Duluth, he had waded through his redshirt year and was now into the lineup. He was one of the strongest players on the line – he did 29 bench-press repetitions at 225 pounds, which would have tied for 11th among offensive linemen at this year’s NFL draft combine – and conceivably could have started for the next three seasons.
He was “just starting to step into his own and earn a starting role,” coach Paul Johnson said.
Roberts will remember most fondly his final game at Bobby Dodd Stadium, the 21-10 homecoming victory against Pittsburgh, particularly the game-sealing catch by wide receiver DeAndre Smelter.
“So on one side, you’re really appreciative that you got to start and you got to do it,” Roberts said. “On the other side, you’re like, I got there and,” and here he snapped his fingers, “it’s gone.”
Roberts, a finance major and a dean’s list student, will earn his scholarship through work for the athletic department. He said he’ll remain close with the team and insisted no one will cheer harder for the team this fall than him. He is thankful for his playing opportunity and the support he has received since the injury. A concussion did not deprive him of his perspective.
“He’s a great student, he’s going to get his degree, he’ll be very successful in life,” Johnson said.
About the Author
