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Motorcycle crash results in leg amputation for Tennessee State football player

MEMPHIS, TN - SEPTEMBER 14: TSU branded helmet sits aside the player benches during the Southern Heritage Classic game between the Jackson State University Tigers and the Tennessee State Tigers on Saturday September 14, 2019 at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, TN.  (Photo by Nick Tre. Smith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

A single pothole on Interstate 24 near Nashville has reportedly cost a Tennessee State football player his career. He’s just happy it didn’t cost his life.

Tennessee State running back Jordan Bell was driving alongside two friends on a red Suzuki motorcycle with plans to meet up with more friends at a gas station when he hit the pothole and skidded into a concrete wall, according to The Tennesseean. His left leg was left with broken bones and skin burns from the friction.

"I just feel like God had a hand on me," Bell said. "I could've gotten ran over."

Bell was reportedly taken to the trauma unit at Vanderbilt University Medical Center after the crash. Following one surgery, he could barely move his left foot. In a second surgery, his leg was amputated to just below the knee.

As he recalls, he could have avoided the pothole, but that would have required swerving into his friend, who was riding another motorcycle. It was a tough decision made in milliseconds:

"I had to make a decision," he recalled. "I can crash into my friend and it not be as bad of a crash, or I can prevent that and just clamp on my brakes, where I can help myself, and him. So, that's what I did."

Bell was set for a redshirt junior season with the Tigers after appearing in all 12 games last year, mostly as a special teams player. Once vying for a better position on the running back depth chart, Bell’s new goal is to be able to walk without assistance.

He has his team’s support.

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