Is he going to get up? That’s the first thought Demetrio Zavala remembers rushing through his mind when it all happened on Oct. 8, 2023, one of the scariest days of his life as a father. It was a Sunday afternoon.
Zavala, a chef by profession, was filming a TV show for Food Network while his son, Chandler, was starting on the offensive line for the Carolina Panthers in a regular season contest against the Detroit Lions. Mid-filming, the elder Zavala was informed something was wrong.
A television was carted to him. He then saw his 6-foot-3, 322-pound son laying on the ground, face down, motionless, with Panthers medical staff and players surrounding him in collective worry. That’s when the first thought — Is he going to get up? — rushed through Demetrio Zavala.
The rest came quickly thereafter: Did he get a concussion? Did he break his neck? “Then you start thinking the worst,” Zavala recounted in a phone conversation earlier this week. “Then you start to praying to God.”
Thanksgiving marks 46 days since that scary hit — 46 days after Zavala was lifted onto a cart, taken off the field, diagnosed with a neck injury and shuttled to a Detroit hospital before regaining feeling in his extremities later that night. He flew home with the team that night and has since made his return to game action. He even started at left guard and played every offensive snap in Week 11 against the Dallas Cowboys. It’s true the Panthers’ offense has suffered through growing pains this year. A rookie quarterback is still finding his way.
Injuries are wreaking havoc. An offensive line has struggled to fully grasp the magic it captured at the end of last year, a product of scheme and circumstance and more. But while there have been lows, there have been highs, too. Zavala’s health among them. “I’m just grateful I was able to move,” the pro rookie out of N.C. State said a few weeks ago, once he was cleared for game time again. He added, “It was just a freak accident. Just blessed to be out there.”
TEAMMATES, FAMILY HAVE HIS BACK ‘NO MATTER WHAT’ The rush of texts and calls and messages of love came in day-of the injury. His father reached out immediately. So did his mother, Brandi Bush, and his sister, Chase. His former and current teammates did, too.
Even N.C. State athletic director Boo Corrigan checked in on him with a text. “In the moment, it was shock,” Zavala said. “And then you look back, and you’re just grateful that people have your back no matter what.” He wasn’t the only one in a state of shock. Many of his teammates talked about the terrifying moment on that day. Ickey Ekwonu, the tackle who plays next to him on the Panthers’ offensive line and who got to know Zavala in college at NCSU, remembers that day well, too. “Definitely a scary moment, obviously,” Ekwonu said last week. “But he never wavered.
Chandler kept his spirits up the whole time, even during the recovery and all that. That’s definitely inspiring to see, when someone goes through something like that and is still cheerful, still wanting to be around the guys.” He added: “He just fought it, man. He just fought through it, killed his rehab. He’s been ready to play.”
Head coach Frank Reich agreed with Ekwonu. “He’s done a great job,” the veteran coach said of Zavala last week. “I think our whole medical staff has done a great job and alleviated any of the concerns, the major concerns, that you have when you get a stinger like that. So I think we’ve done a great job of not rushing that. …
We probably gave him some more extra time than he needed. We didn’t push him, just to give him that extra confidence. “He’s been practicing hard, had plenty of contact in practice. And we decided he’s ready to go.”
CHANDLER ZAVALA’S FATHER: ‘GOD HAS DEFINITELY LOOKED OUT FOR US’ Zavala’s father calls his son “a protector.” It’s fitting, Demetrio says, for the football position he plays and the character he has. It’s not lost on Demetrio that when Chandler was on the ground, prostrated on the Ford Field turf in Detroit, the father couldn’t protect the son himself. In moments of fatherhood powerlessness, he resorts to faith.
“God has definitely looked out for us,” Demetrio said. He then listed off a few worries that have kept him awake at night — that keeps all fathers awake. “When Chandler wasn’t going to get his year back in the COVID times, God blessed us with an extra year to allow him to be able to flourish and do well,” Demetrio continued.
“He blessed my daughter (who is in the military), bringing her home safely. He blessed her with having a daughter, my granddaughter, Chandler’s niece.” Demetrio credits God for the successful emergency surgery he underwent in 2021, after his appendix ruptured and his body went septic and he was “dead” for a moment, he remembers his doctors telling him.
“I pray for my kids first, my loved ones first, and I tell God thank you for giving me life,” he said. “It’s an awakening thing to have something like that happen to you. It’s really hard. And then this happened with (Chandler). And then all you can do is just pray to keep him safe and pray to keep him well, just like any parent would do.”
Just like so many others did, too. “It meant a lot,” Chandler Zavala said of everyone who reached out to him. He was grateful to be able to move again, the lineman said. But he was also thankful to know that he had people in his corner — people he was doing it all for.
