Dawson Broad had been the starting quarterback for his suburban Buffalo, New York, high school, but he hadn’t played any sports since 2021, when, on his 23rd birthday, he had dived into an aboveground swimming pool and damaged his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed.
Then, last October, one of Broad’s physical therapists urged him to attend a local wheelchair football game. Broad was skeptical. He had spent long months of grueling rehabilitation regaining use of his left arm so that he could push a wheelchair. He wondered, What would one-hand touch football on wheels look like anyway?
"I was coming into it like, ‘Meh, this might be whatever,’” said Broad, 25, a public accountant.