When Eric LeGrand broke two vertebrae and suffered a serious spinal cord injury on Oct. 16, 2010 during a kickoff return against Army, many wrote him off—but not his coach at Rutgers. Greg Schiano, now the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has not forgotten the exceptional spirit inside LeGrand and has rewarded the young defensive tackle's strength and resolve with a contract to join the Buccaneers organization. After calling LeGrand's mother in New Jersey to let her know of his intention the night before breaking the news to his former player, the paralyzed player has become an inspiration to his former Rutgers teammates, and now the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"Dreams do come true if you really believe," LeGrand said Wednesday during a conference call. "You do the right things in life, good things happen to you. He [Coach Schiano] really just did this out of the kindness of his heart. It's really what he wanted to do. I had no idea this was going to happen." "The way Eric lives his life epitomizes what we are looking for in Buccaneer Men," Schiano said in a statement released by the Bucs.