During the LSU football team’s 2007 national championship campaign, no one flew higher than wide receiver Demetrius Byrd.
Byrd — a junior at the time — led the team in receiving touchdowns with seven while reeling in 35 receptions for 621 yards.
Three years later, Byrd is back.
The two-year starter has returned to campus to finish his degree — still flashing the flair (and the hair) that made him an icon during the Tigers’ run to the title.
Byrd’s most memorable moment came Oct. 20, 2007, against Auburn.
With LSU trailing 24-23, Byrd made a diving catch in the corner of the end zone with one second remaining, giving LSU a 30-24 victory. Following the catch, Byrd cemented his rock-star status on campus by starting up the now-famed “you can’t see me” hand wave on campus.
But on April 19, 2009 — a week before the NFL draft in which he was projected as a fifth-round pick — all Byrd’s priorities instantly changed.
The Miami native was involved in a single-car accident near his home that burst a blood vessel in his brain, cracked a vertebra and left him in serious condition.
Despite the accident, and the fact he was still in the hospital on draft day, the San Diego Chargers took a chance on Byrd in the seventh round.
But the grueling recovery from the accident left Byrd unable to play in 2009.
Byrd said the person he thanks most for helping him heal both mentally and physically is his mother.
“I thank my mom for everything, and I love her to death,” Byrd said. “She was by my side the whole time. Through the accident, through my college career, my mom was there.”
Byrd’s resiliency and determination caught the eye of current LSU sophomore receiver Russell Shepard.
“He is strong mentally,” Shepard said. “If you see what happened to him throughout this car wreck and the type of effects it had on his life, he had to learn how to walk again, and he had to learn how to talk again. And a lot of people think strong with the whole football thing, but when I say strong, I mean mentally.”
The Chargers kept Byrd on the non-football injury reserve list for the 2009 season before releasing him in March 2010.
Now that he’s a free agent receiver, Byrd has returned to LSU to finish his general studies degree. He’s scheduled to graduate next summer.
And he has returned to his old stomping grounds with the wide receivers.
“Demetrius has won a national championship, and he knows what it takes to be a professional receiver,” Shepard said. “To have him mentor a lot of young receivers … is huge for us.”
While Shepard is taking Byrd’s mentoring to heart, Byrd sees some of himself in Shepard.
“He makes plays. He’s a playmaker,” Byrd said. “And that’s how I looked at myself, as a playmaker. And he was one of those guys that every time I was around this summer, he was there.”
Byrd has also taken time to advise former LSU safety Chad Jones, who suffered a similar car accident in June soon after the New York Giants drafted him.
“I told him that it’s going to be a long road to recovery, but don’t give up. Keep going,” Byrd said. “It’s a lesson learned by me. Even though our injuries were two different injuries, it’s the same process for therapy. But everything is going to be OK because the man upstairs is very powerful.”
Besides giving advice and inspiration, friends say Byrd is the same entertaining character he was during his playing days.
“Before his incident he was kind of a clown on the team and would always help pick the team up when everybody was down,” said senior linebacker Kelvin Sheppard. “He still does that. When he’s around, nothing has changed about Byrd. He’s still the same old Byrd.”
While the players enjoy having their former teammate back in town, Byrd does not plan to nest in Baton Rouge for long.
He’s continuing his rehab efforts and working on his strength and conditioning to keep the possibility of an NFL return open.
“My big-time goal is to make another run to the NFL by the age of 26, and I’m 24 right now,” Byrd said. “I want to give myself time to graduate and to recover, and by that time I should be ready.”
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Contact Rob Landry at [email protected]