Adam Taliaferro, a former Penn State football player who overcame an injurywhich once paralyzed him, is running for a soon-to-be vacant seat in New Jersey.
Taliaferro, 29, is among seven candidates running for the seat of Gloucester County freeholder, a position equivalent to a city council member. The position is opening due to the retirement of current Freeholder Warren Wallace.
“As much as I will miss Dr. Wallace…I will welcome Adam with open arms,” Freeholder Heather Simmons told The Gloucester County Times. Taliaferro “is talented and intelligent and insightful, and he brings a focus on team work and perseverance, and a talent of working with people to accomplish tasks that others would think were impossible.”
In 2000, Taliaferro severely injured his spinal cord while making a tackle in a game versus Ohio State, which resulted in paralysis. He was given a minute chance to walk again, but after successful surgery to fuse his C-5 vertebrae, he ran out onto the field at the 2001 season opener against Miami.
His story inspired a book, “Miracle in the Making: The Adam Taliaferro Story.”
Taliaferro earned his undergraduate degree from Penn State in 2005 and received a law degree from Rutgers in 2008 according to The Altoona Mirror. He currently practices law in New Jersey.