He was a high school football star at Vero Beach, where he received first-team All-State recognition. He earned All-America honors at Notre Dame, where, as a senior, he helped the Fighting Irish reach the national championship game. He was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons and, as a rookie, played his way into the starting lineup.
Despite being a seventh-round pick, Zeke Motta’s football future seemed more promising than anyone had a right to expect.
And now it’s gone.
Now, there is uncertainty in Motta’s voice as he talks about life after football.
“Transitioning can be difficult,” he said from his home in Pompano Beach, where he is working as an insurance adjuster, a job he landed through his Notre Dame connections. “Right now, I’m kind of just taking some time to try to find myself and really figure out what the next step is going to be.
“I’ve come to terms with the fact that I can’t play football anymore and I’ve moved on, but I still do a lot of soul-searching,” he added. “It’s a daily process for me, but I’m adapting to the real world and it’s different.
“Football was my whole life.”
Motta, a safety who had played mostly on special teams, was covering a second-quarter kickoff in a Dec. 8 game at Green Bay’s famed Lambeau Field when, in a cruel twist of fate, he was left dazed after a jarring collision.
A week later, Motta made his first NFL start and recorded five tackles in the Falcons’ one-point victory against the Washington Redskins.
He was expected to start again in the Dec. 23 game at San Francisco, but the pain in his neck worsened during practice and the team physician sent him for a CAT scan.
The scan revealed a fracture of the C1 vertebra, located at the top of the spine.
The injury, doctors said, was serious – so much so that it could impair his ability to breathe and even result in death.
Fortunately for Motta, the 11-millimeter separation in the vertebra was painful but hadn’t yet affected his respiratory system.
“In some ways, it’s a miracle that he’s alive and walking,” said Motta’s father, Bill, an island resident who coached his son as the defensive coordinator at Vero Beach before taking the job as the head coach St. Edward’s in 2010. “And Zeke knows that.”
In fact, as much as he’s still dealing with the loss of his football career, Motta acknowledges that the injury “could’ve been a lot worse.”
Three days before Christmas 2013, at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, a team of world-class specialists performed surgery to repair the damage, installing a plate at the front of the vertebra.
Six months later, a follow-up CAT scan showed the fracture hadn’t healed as the doctors had hoped. So in July 2014, Motta underwent a second surgery, during which doctors inserted another plate at the back of the vertebra and used a bone graft from his pelvis to fill the gap.
The procedures allowed Motta to eventually resume his rehab with a belief he still had a chance to get back on the field after sitting out the entire 2014 season.
Team doctors, however, refused to give him the necessary medical clearance to play.
The risk of permanent or fatal injury was too great, and the Falcons finally cut him in April.
That’s when the harsh reality hit – and when it did, it was as fierce and unforgiving as the jolt that broke his neck.
He would never play football again.
“He tried for a year to explore every option available,” Motta’s father said. “He saw a bunch of different doctors, all kinds of specialists all across the country. He really wanted to come back and had gotten himself in great physical shape, but once the Falcons released him, he knew he was done.”
Or as Motta put it: “The doctors advised me that it wouldn’t be in my best interest to continue playing.”
The doctors’ words still haunt him, and there was an obvious pain in his voice as he repeated them. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He had worked so hard for so long to make his dream come true.
He deserved better.
“As a dad, you can tell when your kids are doing something they really love, and Zeke loved playing football,” his father said. “He didn’t care about the ambiance and celebrity that goes with being a pro or a high-profile college athlete. He was happy staying under the radar. He just wanted to play.
“That’s what makes this so difficult,” he added. “It would’ve been easier if he had gotten cut because he wasn’t good enough. But for him to work his way onto the roster and into the starting lineup, then have it taken away through no fault of his own … I can see where his mind could start playing tricks on him.
“It’s got to be tough for him, being 25 years old and knowing that a healthy Zeke Motta could be playing, but as I’ve told all my kids: God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.”
Motta said he’s handling the disappointment as well as he can. He knows he has been dealt a bad break, but he also believes adversity builds character and that there are other ways he can live a productive, meaningful and rewarding life.
He knows there’s nothing to be gained from feeling sorry for himself.
“I’ve already been there, and it’s not conducive to a happy lifestyle,” Motta said. “I spent more than a year wallowing in the depths of the unknown. It’s time to move on.”
That’s why he has returned to Florida and taken a job with the Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Co., where he is trying to build a new career away from football.
He said he doesn’t yet know if his future lies in insurance, but he’s eagerly learning the business.
At the same time, he stays in shape and remains active, enjoying surfing and diving and engaging in other physically demanding hobbies that do not involve the rigors of pro football.
Earlier this year, he went hiking in the Rocky Mountains.
“He can still do more than the average person could do,” Motta’s father said. “He could probably play in the NFL, barring one severe hit.”
That one hit, though, could kill him.
And Motta has too much to live for.
“Every day, I’m grateful to be alive,” Motta said. “I’m grateful for the doctors who did a phenomenal job with the surgeries. I’m grateful for still being able to do a lot of the things I enjoy doing. I’m grateful for my family and the friends who’ve given me so much support.
“I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through all of this without them,” he added, “especially my father.”
As for football, Motta said it’s too soon to even consider a return to the game in a non-playing capacity. But he hasn’t ruled out such a possibility.
“I’m trying this new job and we’ll see how it works out,” Motta said. “I’ve devoted a lot of my life to football, and I’m looking forward to experiencing some other things. But I wouldn’t say I’m done with football.
“It would be difficult to go back right now, though.”
That’s certainly understandable.
NFL players are toiling in their training camps, preparing for the 2015 season and playing preseason games.
And Motta knows that, if it weren’t for a fluke injury, he’d be there with them.
“Yeah, it’s tough to watch and not be a part of it, but I’ve got friends out there and I want to cheer them on,” Motta said. “It’s not always easy, but I still watch the games I want to watch.”
His father believes Motta will eventually turn back to football and re-embrace the game he so dearly loved – perhaps as a coach on the high school or college level.
“We’ve talked about it, and I’m sure it’s something he’ll explore when the time is right for him,” Motta’s father said. “Zeke has always been great with kids, interacting with young people, working with them at our camps. He knows the game and understands what it takes to be successful. And I know he wants to give something back.
“He’s just not ready yet,” he added. “He’s struggling right now, caught between selfishness and selflessness. That’s a tough place for a 25-year-old to be, especially with everything that has happened, but Zeke’s got a good head on his shoulders and he’s a very grounded individual.
“He’ll figure it out.”
Maybe he’ll stick with insurance. Maybe he’ll use the industrial design degree he earned at Notre Dame. Maybe he’ll find his way back to football and follow his father into coaching.
One thing is certain: He’s still in transition, mourning the death of a dream as he embarks on a new life in the real world.
“I’m looking for my next passion, whatever that may be,” Motta said. “I haven’t found it yet.”