As Ryan Shazier continues his rehabilitation process, the Steelers have found ways to keep the injured linebacker in the mix, something team president Art Rooney II said last week they would continue to do moving forward.
Kevin Colbert said Thursday that Shazier has been at the team's facility on a daily basis working out and sitting in on meetings before heading off to his daily rehab process as he continues to recover from a serious spinal cord injury suffered Dec. 4 at Cincinnati.
"It's been great for both of us," Colbert said of Shazier and the team. "Ryan works extremely hard at his rehab, so from a physical standpoint, he continues to work to overcome his injury. But what we've enabled him to do is be involved with the football part of it because we think it's important for him to still have that in front of him. He's here on a daily basis. He does physical workouts in the morning. He either sits in with the coaches or he sits in with us in some personnel stuff, just to keep him involved with us. Then he goes and does his rehab."
Shazier experienced some paralysis following what appeared to be a routine tackle against the Bengals and missed the remainder of the season. He was a regular visitor to the team's practices late in the season but was relegated to a wheelchair.
Two weeks ago, however, he was released from his rehab hospital to continue working on an outpatient basis and released photos of himself standing. The 25-year-old has remained upbeat throughout the situation, according to Colbert.
Then, last week at the Penguins-Golden Knights game, he did this:
"The way he goes about this is really uplifting," Colbert said. "Never once has he said, 'Why me?' I know that's an uplifting gesture for us and those that deal with him. He shows us everybody has problems. But he's going to work to overcome his."
