Ex-Isu Football Player Improves After Injuries

Former Idaho State University football player Marcus Jackson continues to improve steadily from a spinal injury that paralyzed him in September.

Jackson, 21, hopes to be released from a Colorado rehabilitation center so he can have Thanksgiving dinner with his family in Denver, said his father, James.

“He’ll be coming home in a wheelchair, but he’ll be here,” the elder Jackson said.

Marcus suffered an injury to his cervical spine following a collision with another player during a Sept. 21 game against Western Montana College in Holt Arena. He underwent surgery at Bannock Regional Medical Center and was hospitalized until Oct. 1, when he was moved to Denver and hospitalized for a week at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Marcus, a senior All-American cornerback at ISU, has been at Craig Hospital, a renowned rehabilitation center at Englewood, a suburb of Denver, since Oct. 8.

Marcus has some feeling now from the top of his shoulder to his elbows as well as from his chest to his waistline, his father said.

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