It’s not everyday that one has an opportunity to meet a future Hall of Fame player in the NFL. It’s even more unique that one of them would would be gracious enough to spend his day off from practice to come and talk to a group of student chiropractors. With the help of Dr. Harry Ho, Palmer West’s Sports Council was able to cash in this opportunity and bring Isaac Bruce to our school this past October.  

After a warm welcome from Sports Council and the rest of the Palmer West student body, Isaac Bruce stood in front of a packed room and spoke about how beneficial chiropractic has been in maintaining his health and keeping him functioning at high levels over the course of his career. Originally turned on to chiropractic while he was playing with the St. Louis Rams over 7 years ago, Bruce found chiropractic as a great way to keep him on his feet and doing the two things that he does best, making defenses miss and catching touchdown passes. Isaac Bruce emphasized that as a professional athlete, and specifically at a high profile position like wide receiver, an athlete’s value to a team is solely based upon how healthy they are and the numbers they are able to put up because of it. For this reason, he stated that as an athlete, one doesn’t typically care what/who gets them back on their feet in optimum shape. Whether it’s an orthopedist, physical therapist, athletic trainer or chiropractor, an athlete will do whatever it takes to get them back on that field. He followed that comment with another praising chiropractors for their vast knowledge of human anatomy and being able to look at pain and injury from a functionally biomechanical perspective, which is a unique quality in the medical field, and one we should be proud of. He used the example of how his original chiropractor in St. Louis pointed out his gate imbalances that was a direct result from improper muscle sequencing. No one else had ever thought to address the issue and after a few quick treatments and proper muscle stretching/functional release, Bruce was able to compete at a world class level.  

He discussed the relationship between the team’s medical staff versus a non-team affiliated provider and how some players prefer going to these professionals so that the team’s management won’t find out about an injury which may depreciate the athlete’s value at the end of the season.
After taking close to an hour’s worth of questions ranging from how it felt to win a Super Bowl to his future plans after he retires from football, Isaac hung out for a bit to take pictures, shake hands, and sign autographs for those in attendance. One of the most down-to-earth, well-spoken individuals I have ever met, Isaac Bruce is a class act and is a great supporter of all that is chiropractic. So many thanks go out to Dr. Ho and Isaac Bruce for spending his day with us, it was truly a once in a lifetime experience.