Meet the Men Clearing the Path for Leonard Fournette's Heisman Run

quote:

---

Meet the Men Clearing the Path for Leonard Fournette's Heisman Run
By Ray Glier
Oct 29, 2015

. . . There are two other things you should know about Fournette.

First, he is not blocking for himself (though sometimes it seems that way when he lowers his shoulder). Second, he may not be the best story on the LSU football team.

LSU senior offensive tackle Vadal Alexander was 17 years old in July 2011. He was about to bloom as an offensive lineman, one of the best in the country as a rising junior at Buford High School, north of Atlanta.

Preseason workouts had just started, and Alexander was on the field working his way through drills. Suddenly, he felt a tingling in his toes and then a slight numbness in his feet.

"I just thought my [ankle] tape was too tight, or maybe I tied my shoes too tight," Alexander said.

Brynn Anderson/Associated Press
His feet started to become more numb. Suddenly, it wasn't just his feet; his legs were beginning to feel numb, too.

"Hey, you know, I'm just having a bad practice," he said to himself.

Alexander tried to raise one of his legs. He couldn't.

Then he fell down.

He was helped to the training room and then taken home. It was mysterious, to be sure, but he went to sleep in his own bed that night.

The next morning, Alexander, one of the best high school linemen in the country, couldn't feel his legs.

"Scary," Alexander said.

Somehow, his family got him in the car, and his father, James, drove him to a hospital. . . . .

LINK

---