Ready For Action

By Collin Mickle

Published: March 11, 2008

Antonio Coleman is ready to practice.

At least, his mind is ready. But according to Coleman, his body will follow soon.

That’s good news for Coleman, who was briefly paralyzed by a cervical sprain he suffered in Auburn’s first scrimmage of the spring. After that scary injury — which led to Coleman being taken from Jordan-Hare Stadium in an ambulance, his head and neck immobilized — his speedy recovery has been remarkable.

And it’s almost complete. Coleman told reporters he expected to be back in practice when AU returns from spring break on March 23.

“I’m still rehabbing and whatnot,” he said. “Everything feels good.”

Including the March 29 A-Day game, AU will have six remaining spring practices, after spring break.

Coleman says the injury won’t slow him down when he returns.

“I’m full-speed every time I touch the field,” he said. “There’s no problem with that.

“I love to hit, I love contact. I might get a little sore here and there when I get back out there, but that’s all in the game.”

It’s quite a comeback for Coleman, who was briefly hospitalized at East Alabama Medical Center following the injury.

The junior defensive end was battling offensive tackle Lee Ziemba when he was injured on the scrimmage’s final play. The two continued to scrap after the play was whistled dead; when the struggle ended, Coleman was face-down on the turf, his extremities numb and unresponsive.

It was a frightening moment for everyone at Jordan-Hare that day, including Ziemba, who left the stadium in tears. Needless to say, it was especially scary for Coleman.

“You can imagine how it is when you’re down on the ground,” he said. “It was really scary. After a couple of minutes, I got some of my feeling back.”

He walked out of EAMC under his own power a few hours after being admitted.

“I probably could have gotten up out of the ambulance and walked in,” he said. “I just wanted to get up out of there. I wanted to get out as quickly as possible.”

Coleman said he and Ziemba have spoken about the incident. Though Coleman says Ziemba’s actions after the whistle caused his injury, he says there aren’t any hard feelings.

Still, he made it clear that he believed Ziemba’s actions were excessive.

“I bet you it won’t happen again,” Coleman said. “That’s for sure. That’s dealing with my life and what I’m doing up here at Auburn as far as my education, too. I just hope it doesn’t happen again.

“It happened after the play or whatever, but I’m not going to comment too much on that — about what happened. It definitely won’t happen again.
That’s all I’m going to say about that.”

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