Eric LeGrand Update: Paralyzed Rutgers lineman stands on his own two feet

As ghastly as the initial news was last October, the ongoing story of Eric LeGrand's recovery from the hit that left him paralyzed from the neck down has been one of very slow but steady optimism as the Rutgers defensive lineman works to regain feeling and movement in his arms. Wednesday, cautious optimism gave way to a sense of genuine triumph: LeGrand posted twopictures to his Twitter feed showing him on his feet in therapy for the first time. He accompanied the photos with a pair of messages, "Standing up little by little in therapy," and "Standing tall, we can't fall. Standing upright again."

LeGrand has spent the last nine months immobilized in a hospital bed and then in a special chair that he's appeared in regularly since roughly the beginning of the year. Previously, he'd reported "twitches going throughout the body" and movement in his arms, both in the span of less than a month.

I'm not that kind of doctor, but leaving the chair to stand on his own two feet appears to be LeGrand's biggest step yet toward actually taking a step again, and to eventually fulfilling his goal of walking onto the field again at Rutgers Stadium. If he does make it back, he wouldn't be the first, a fact that hopefully gives him more incentive to keep striving for an attainable goal.

If you're interested, you can still contribute to the Eric LeGrand Believe Fund to assist his treatment, or make some strategic purchases on his behalf.

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.