Lucas Gebhart

Sports Editor

Four years ago, Jakori Ford sat in a hospital room while doctors tapped the bottom of his foot, asking him if he could feel anything. He was 19-years old and a father to be.

Ford knew why the doctors were tapping on this foot and knew why they were asking him those questions. Nobody had to tell him that his leg might have to be amputated.

Two months earlier, Ford was walking home from practice. It was his birthday and he had not talked to his ex-girlfriend in over a month.

“It was night time after practice, I will never forget it,” Ford said. “I get back to my apartment with my homeboys, and boom.”

Ford received a picture message from his ex-girlfriend. What the pictures showed was the ultrasound of an unborn child. He was about to be a father.

“The whole month of June we hadn’t talked at all,” Ford said. “So July [came], and it is summer football, so I am doing my football thing with all my homeboys, just chilling.”

The parents of the expectant mother wanted him to quit playing football, drop out of school, go work with her dad and raise the child.

The four-year member of Notemis’ High School honor roll and standout athlete, wanted nothing of the sort.

“I felt like if I am going to do something in my life, it is going to be because of school and football,” Ford explained. “That is what I was always good at… At the end of the day, even if you are playing football, you’re still in college. Football is going to take you somewhere and get your school paid for.”

Ford decided to keep playing football and stay in school. By mid-September, he was doing neither.

The play was from the five-yard line. Ford was in at tailback, giving starting running back Devontae Booker a much needed rest. It was a zone play to the left, Ford cut back to the right only to find a helmet on his kneecap.

Through pure adrenaline, Ford scored a touchdown on the play, giving American Rivers College an early 6-0 lead over its rival Sacramento City College.

Ford limped to the sideline while still attempting to celebrate with teammates.

“He jumped, but I could not jump, I just kind leaned into him,” Ford said. “When he fell, I fell into his arms and my leg just collapsed. That was it. I was on the ground and my leg was all crooked.”

Ford spent the next month and a half in a Sacramento hospital. He was 19-years old with a child on the way and a leg with no feeling in it.

“That hospital bed was rocky,” Ford said. “There was so much going on, I don’t know how I handled it.”

Ford slowly started to feel as if his life was crumbling.

“At that point, I was losing it, mentally,” Ford said. “It was rough. It didn’t seem like nothing was going right.” 

Doctors were able to save Ford’s leg, but professors were not able to save his grades. Ford was dropped from all but one class.

“I just rehabbed, and rehabbed and rehabbed,” Ford said. “Next thing I know, that next semester, the baby is here and that was a whole ‘nother situation. That is when stuff got wild.”

It was an April afternoon, Ford was in the middle of his routine, which included two jobs, school and rehab.

“I am going to this job, that job, school, rehab, and I come home and they aren’t there,” Ford said. “I didn’t think nothing of it. Just thought they went somewhere,”

It was apparent that something was amiss when Ford returned home for the second time and there was still no sign of his daughter, or her mother.

“They still aren’t there,” Ford said. “Call them, nothing. Just left. Both of them. Gone.”

With no sign of his daughter, Ford was once again lost. Weeks passed and there was still no sign of his daughter.

Then he received a call from Child Protective Services, with chilling news.

Ford was told that if he cared about his daughter or her whereabouts, he was to attend a meeting and bring anybody who supported him. There was no further explanation. Ford didn’t need one.

“I told my homeboy, I was like, ‘We got to go,’” Ford said. “And my homeboy was like, ‘you’re damn right we got to go’ I didn’t know what they was going to say until I got there.”

By attending the meeting, Ford saved his daughter from adoption.

“[The child’s grandmother] tried to tell them she didn’t know who the dad was,” Ford said. “They ended up letting me keep her.”

But not without a few sacrifices.

Ford was told that he had to move in with his grandmother and take parenting classes, causing him to sit out another football season. He was told if he did not do it now, a judge would make him do it later.

“I was so upset about that,” Ford said. “I had to ask [my grandma] and drag her into the situation. I had to go to so much crap.”

Ford once again began to rebuild his life.

Despite playing in only two junior college games, Ford was awarded a scholarship at ISU. He moved to Pocatello, and finally began to find peace.

“Once you get your routine, it really isn’t that hard,” Ford said. “She’ll go to bed, I’ll go knock out whatever homework I got, go to sleep and do it again tomorrow.”

As far as the daughter’s mother, Ford leaves that ball in her court.

“I let her come around whenever she thinks it is best for her to come around,” Ford said. “I am not going to call her, begging her to see her daughter. She knows my number.”

Ford is living a life similar to that of the one his mother once lived.

The single mother raised two sets of twins on her own as Ford’s father passed away when he was a baby.

“It is just my life,” Ford said. “I don’t really think about of it any other way.”