Robert Paylor was not supposed to walk again. A doctor at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center delivered the prognosis after the Cal rugby player broke his neck during the 2017 collegiate national championships.
The injury was the result of a mass of muscular men collapsing atop 6-foot-5 Paylor while an opponent had dragged him down by the neck.
“They were still playing rugby around my numb, motionless body,” Paylor recalled. “I looked like a corpse.”
Physicians and family were not sure that Paylor, then a sophomore at Cal, would survive. The impact had shattered three of Paylor’s vertebrae as he slammed into the grass field at Santa Clara University. Paylor suffered from pneumonia, could not swallow or breathe independently and lost 60 pounds. He had to have his lungs pumped every three hours, often done by his mother Debbie Paylor.
“In the hospital, those next two weeks were like a death chamber,” said family friend Dave Cusano, whose son Sam Cusano played with Paylor.
From those desperate moments Paylor, 23, has emerged as an inspiration to the Cal rugby community and thousands of others. He spent the past three years willing his legs and hands to regain function so he could graduate from the Haas School of Business and walk across the stage to receive a diploma.
The May 16 graduation ceremony was canceled, like so many others. Instead of appearing in person, Paylor delivered an emotional video address to graduating Cal athletes.
“I worked so hard to get there and then it was gone. Like so many other things in my life,” he said.
Paylor finished his college career as one of five recipients of the Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award, an honor given to individuals who have overcome a traumatic experience to find success. The award is named after one of America’s greatest women Olympic sprinters who taught herself to walk after contracting Polio at age 5.
Paylor has continued physical therapy at his parents’ home in El Dorado Hills east of Sacramento to maintain body functions while also developing a strategy to become a nationally recognized motivational speaker, to represent what it means to overcome the impossible.
“Breaking your neck you would think it is all bad,” Paylor said. “But being able to touch someone’s heart makes breaking my neck a gift.”
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A study conducted in 2011 showed the risk for serious injury was nearly five times greater in rugby than American football. Experts say the potential for injury increases when players face each other in three types of close quarters known as a maul, ruck or scrum.
Paylor was in the center of a maul in the first 2½ minutes of the national championship game against Arkansas State. A maul occurs when at least three players from either side are in contact together as a player with the ball moves toward a goal line.
Paylor has not forgotten the details of the maul that changed his life. He said his job was to move men who did not want to be pushed backward.
Video of the play shows it started near Cal’s goal line with players from both teams converging into a pitched battle of wills. An Arkansas State player rushed in from the side and bound Paylor around the neck, Paylor said and video confirmed.
The game’s rules state players cannot make contact above the shoulder. Players also are prohibited from intentionally collapsing a ruck or maul. Paylor and others from Cal rugby’s community say the referee should have given the Arkansas State player a yellow card, if not a red card ejection when grabbing hold of the neck.
Paylor said he kept pushing forward. He said another opponent came in and knocked his legs out while the Arkansas State teammate still grasped Paylor’s neck. Paylor said he closed his eyes and braced for impact, thinking he’d pop back up.
“But my face slammed against my chest and I felt a crunch in my neck,” Paylor said. “Then immediately I felt entirely disconnected from my body. I couldn’t feel anything. I couldn’t move anything but my mind and my thoughts were completely intact.”
The referee penalized Arkansas State for purposely collapsing the maul. He gave Cal the advantage and play continued for about 30 seconds. Somehow, no one tripped over Paylor.
“It was like he had a halo around him,” said Dave Cusano, who attended the game.
Play finally stopped when Cusano’s son, Sam Cusano, scored a try in what would be a 43-13 Cal triumph.
Paylor said he instantly knew the unthinkable had occurred. Questions swirled in his mind.
“Am I going to go to school again?” he said. “Am I going to walk? Am I ever going to see my friends again? Will I meet a girl, get married and start a family, have a career? Let alone, am I even going to be able to breathe again? My vision looked crushed. Everything I had worked for in my life looked like it was gone.”
Paylor holds no ill will toward the Arkansas State player who the Cal rugby community said caused the injury. Paylor was disappointed no one from Arkansas State reached out to apologize.
Paylor said when watching videos of the incident he wanted to hate his opponent.
“The more power I gave to hatred, the less power I gave to me,” Paylor said. “I forgive him whether he is sorry or not.”
Three years later, others say they do not have Paylor’s charity to let it go. Cal coach Jack Clark said he and others had to insist that USA Rugby investigate the incident. American rugby officials asked a World Rugby citing commissioner from Seattle to decide.
Five months after the incident, the rugby official determined the play was reckless but without intent to injure.
“USA Rugby needed to say he came to the wrong conclusion,” said Clark, a former U.S. national team coach. “They don’t want to admit their mistakes.”
On Monday, the national governing body made a public apology to Paylor and his family less than two weeks after telling this news organization it could not comment on a ruling by a World Rugby official.
Officials apologized “for the lack of timely action and an inadequate citing process,” according to a statement. “We agree that retrospectively, the citing process should have been more transparent, provided more rigorous due diligence and openly communicated to all parties involved.”
Rugby officials added that from now on all catastrophic injuries will require an immediate, independent panel review for foul play, including, but not limited to mandatory interviews and review of video evidence.
The apology fell short for Clark and Paylor. On Monday, Clark wrote a detailed response on his Facebook page saying U.S. Rugby officials “couldn’t admit a premeditated armlock around the neck of a player for an extended period of time is a red card. In their apology they couldn’t find it in themselves to admit their failed process and politicking led to an incorrect decision.”
Paylor said in a Facebook post that he has wanted U.S. rugby to learn from his situation “to mitigate something like this from happening again. I have had to fight for my life and have spent the last 1,136 days getting my independence back.”
Paylor said it has “hurt me greatly to see those in power were doing nothing to promote player safety in this incident. It seemed they did not care I was paralyzed in a match or that it could happen to another player.”
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After a month at Valley Medical Center, Paylor moved to Craig Hospital, a world-renowned facility near Denver that specializes in neuro-rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord injuries.
It was at Craig that Paylor met Cal student Jonah Karpman of San Diego, who suffered a broken neck seven months after the rugby incident. Karpman dove off a seawall and hit his head on the bottom of Mission Bay while working out with San Diego Rowing Club teammates. He has not regained the same level of functionality as Paylor.
Paylor, along with his parents, have provided support.
“We were so broken,” said Mark Karpman, Jonah’s father. “Just to have somebody sit with you who had been through this six months earlier makes a difference.”
In June 2018, Cal football recruit Chris Fatilua suffered a severe spinal injury after diving into a swimming pool. Fatilua, who recovered to the point where he planned to train with the Bears this year, met Paylor and Karpman at Craig Hospital.
Paylor also met patients with brain injuries who wished they had the functionality that he did. Paylor said the experience taught him to appreciate what he has.
Paylor said doctors told him only 3 percent of the patients with his level of quadriplegia improve enough to use a wheelchair. Paylor decided at that moment he would do everything in his power to become the exception.
Debbie Paylor said her son tries to mask the serious struggles he faces every day — even the ritual of getting out of bed to stand up. She has encouraged him to talk about the tough times but he told her, “People don’t want to look at sad things.”
Paylor said in an interview, “I want people to look at me and feel inspired.”
