Greg Schindler was once a star offensive lineman for the Stanford football team; a four-year starter, heavily recruited out of high school by, among others, the University of Oregon. He was named a second-team All-Pacific-10 Conference player in 2001 after his third season, and he was a potential third- or fourth-round pick had he chosen to enter the 2002 NFL draft.
Instead, he chose to stay for his final year of eligibility at Stanford, even though he had already earned his degree. Injuries caught up with him, and his dream of playing in the NFL gradually went down the tubes.
Now, he studies journalism as a graduate student at the UO. How he arrived here after coming so close to playing in the NFL illustrates that things don’t always work out, dreams do get shattered, and life does go on.
Schindler’s life changed forever in March 2000, when he was hustling through spring conditioning drills at a Stanford practice facility. In one drill, the players had to run one direction, then turn and run back. When Schindler tried to pivot, his body turned. His foot didn’t budge.
“Honestly, it sounded like a shotgun blast,” Schindler said. “Everybody in the room could hear.”
That “shotgun blast” was the sound of Schindler’s ankle suffering a severe sprain. Though he went on to play two more seasons on that ankle, he would never be the same.
“I had almost no function in that ankle,” Schindler said. “It was like playing on a peg leg.”
Schindler, 24, has experienced things no other current University student has. Despite his injuries, the San Francisco 49ers gambled on him, signing the free agent to a $535,000, two-year contract on the second day of the 2003 NFL draft.
He practiced with the 49ers. He listened to the coaches and ran plays through pain that necessitated
injections into his spine to keep
him going.
Schindler got the impression that his injuries were far worse than the 49ers trainers were letting on, but he agreed to do his best to get into playing shape. Then, before he could play in a game and hear the cheering crowds at Monster Park, the 49ers unceremoniously dumped him, despite NFL rules that Schindler says prohibit releasing injured players.
“They don’t have a lot of patience for guys who get injured right away,” Schindler explained.
Luckily, he had an excellent agent who helped him through the difficult time after the 49ers released him. And, unlike most athletes with dreams that have torn like ankle cartilage, Schindler had a Stanford
degree to fall back on.
“One thing I knew is I didn’t want to spend the next few years getting surgery after surgery trying to get back into football just so I could say I played in the NFL,” he said.
So after considering his options, it was on to Eugene, a town he first visited in high school when he participated in camps run by University football coaches. The town where, as a Stanford player, he twice challenged the Ducks. The town where his Cardinal delivered one of the most heartbreaking defeats in UO football history: the 2001 game in which Stanford roared back to beat Joey Harrington and arguably the finest football team in Ducks history, breaking a 23-game Autzen Stadium win streak and proving “Joey Heisman” fallible.
“I just remember how quiet
the stadium was,” Schindler said of the game.
Now, he’s learning the techniques of the reporters who used to pester him. He sometimes watches football games in the stadium he once helped silence.
Schindler isn’t sure if reporting is for him. He may want to edit instead or teach and coach football at a high school or small college, where he could shape the lives of young men.
He could tell them about his NFL dream shot, his stellar career at Stanford and how a courageous young man refused to let life get the better of him.

[email protected]