Written by Erik Slaby
Atlanta, GA – Roughly two years ago at this time, Los Angeles Rams cornerback Sam Shields was in a dark place. Both physically and mentally. He was living alone, constant headaches throughout the day. Lights hurt his eyes and his head. Even the lowest level of brightness on his phone caused him pain. In this time last year, Shields had just gone through his first fall of not playing football in at least 11 years after sustaining a serious concussion injury, in week one of the 2016 NFL season while playing for the Green Bay Packers.
The Packers released him in late January 2017 after he had failed numerous different concussion tests. “The Packers gave me balance tests and computer tests,” he says. “I failed them all. I couldn’t concentrate on the computer for longer than two minutes. I couldn’t balance. They kept sending me home.”
At that point, Shields didn’t know if the headaches would ever go away. Let alone if he would ever play football again.
“Scary and dark moments man,” recalled Shields about that time in his life. “The headaches were not fading away. Things like that. I just had to cope with it.” Shields compared the constant pain of a headache to the pain people have when they have a toothache.
“Everything. Just anything, any little thing is aggravating. Just things that wouldn’t stop. You know when you have a toothache, it’s like a headache but a toothache. It’s aggravating. You can’t get your mind right when you’ve got a toothache. I don’t care who you is,” laughed Shields.
In this rough period of his life, Shields relied on the support of his family and friends, though it was difficult for them to help because they didn’t really know what was going on with him in his head. Sharing his struggles with his loved ones was particularly difficult for Shields because he didn’t want to “tell them what I was going through because I didn’t want them to go through it with me.”
Shields used this time away from football to do all of the things he had been unable to do while he was playing. Mainly being a better father and doing “dad things” with his three daughters and focusing on that.
“I was just enjoying my family, enjoying my kids,” said Shields. “Making the things that I had missed, birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving and things like that. I wasn’t thinking about nothing else but family.”
“I was a real dad,” said Shields with a proud smile on his face, reminiscing. “I’ve missed it. That was another reason why I probably didn’t want to come back because I was like, ‘damn I’ve missed this.’ My kids were happy but they were also happy when I came back. They were the ones who wanted me to come back.”
Shields, on advice from a friend, eventually went to Los Angeles for treatment for his headaches at UCLA. He was in a six-month treatment program where doctors ran him through a series of test and exercises during his time there. Gradually, instead of his headaches occurring every single day, they became less frequent. This progress eventually led him to decide to make a comeback.
“It was just one day I woke up,” remembered Shields, “and I’ll never forget, my brother was in there, in the kitchen and I was like, ‘Yeah I’m ready to go back. I wanna go workout.’ And that day, I started working out and it was like I never had a headache since then.”
Shields credits being mentally tough throughout this whole process and making decisions like receiving treatment at UCLA, gave him the confidence that he was healthy and could come back to the NFL.
“Like I said just being mentally tough about the situation I was in. Being able to make the decisions I made like going to UCLA and getting that treatment, making sure I was healthy before I even came back to the league.”
Now though, he is playing football and is a key contributor on a Rams team that has reached the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2001 season and the “Greatest Show on Turf” days. In the NFC Championship Game two weeks ago against the New Orleans Saints, Shields combined with Rams punter Johnny Hekker on the fake punt play that gave the team a first down. This was a huge play as the Rams were reeling and seemed to be dangerously close to falling into a huge hole against the Saints, but this play jumpstarted the team.
Shields also has another important role of being one of only four players on this Rams team that has Super Bowl experience. He won a Super Bowl with the Packers back in the 2010 season, defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers. Shields spoke about the advice he gave his inexperienced Rams teammates stating, “just take in the enjoyment in the first three days or so, then get back to work.”
Though this has been a difficult journey for Shields, it has been worth it. Going through these struggles and having the mental toughness to persevere through everything has taught him so much about himself and he has grown as a person because of it.
“Knowing me being that strong, that gave me a lot more confidence in myself. Just made me even better. A better dad, a better brother a better everything. Definitely a better teammate.”
Though finishing this season with a Super Bowl victory would be sweet, Shields says, either way, everything he has done to this point has been worth it.
“Just being here is worth it. Right now, it’s worth it. The opportunity is worth everything, said Shields.” “I love it, I love everything. Like I said, thanks to the Rams organization for giving me the opportunity because it was a journey.”
The Los Angeles Rams will face off against the New England Patriots on February 3rd at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
