Star defensive lineman on Notre Dame’s 2012 team that finished the regular season 12-0 before getting blown out by Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game has returned home after being shot while filling his car tire with air nearly two weeks ago.
Part of the bullet that nearly reached Nix’s heart remains in his lung.
“Apparently there are a lot of people walking around with pieces of a bullet or whole bullets inside of them,” Nix told Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune. “I’ve got some nerve issues too. Because my (fractured) sternum is still healing, I can’t lift anything over 10 pounds or do even one push-up.”
Perhaps even scarier is how Nix described the mental toll being shot has taken on him when in public.
“I went out shopping with my girl to get my mom a birthday gift, and it was crazy,” he said. “You wouldn’t think you’d feel like that, but I was just paranoid being around people. People coming up from behind me, coming out of nowhere. I felt like I just needed to see everything and it was kind of emotional in the moment.”
In Hansen’s piece, Nix also points out that his current employer, Cintas Corporation, is paying for him to see a therapist and hopefully work through this issue.
Nix’s mother set up a gofundme page to help pay for any medical expenses as well as the work Nix will miss. That page has raised over $41,000 to date and can be visited here.