Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 843 | Phil's Jaw Drops at a Football Player Who Got Shot by a Dog

Episode Date: February 28, 2024

Phil meets Matt Branch, who lost his left leg at the hip after a dog accidentally set off a gun during a hunting trip. Matt is a former LSU football player, husband, father, and north Louisiana native who has more ties to the Robertson family than they realized. Phil, Jase, and Al are touched by Matt’s amazing story of faith, perseverance, introspection, and how God can rescue us from even the jaws of death.  In this episode: 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10; 1 Samuel 2, verse 9 https://PhilRobertsonBook.com — Get your signed copy of Phil Robertson's new book before they're gone! -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashame. Jason, we're in kind of that period. I call it the dead zone, like the Super Bowl wins. So you've been watching football. From a sports. From a sports perspective. And you just kind of, I'm trying to get excited about college basketball.

But really, it's hard to get excited about it. And then really... Well, because you're an LSU fan. We're right at 500, which they have made an improvement. I mean, the last two or three years were rough in that round. So, right. So we're kind of, from an LSU perspective, definitely down. But the saving grace was...

I'll have breaking news. LSU baseball season. There you go. So we're huge fans always have been. and LSU has pretty good history when it comes to baseball. I mean, when we were kids, I think it's the first game that I ever attended was an LSU baseball game. Yeah, we went down there to the old box.

Yeah, that was back when you, that was before Jesus for Al, so most of the memories of that trip, the things that I've tried to forget. The baseball kind of hooked me in. And you kind of had a long history because you and Manari, We were pretty good pals. We are. You actually did a lot of, you threw out the first pitch. I mean, you've had some like connections.

So weird everywhere. You and I have been to a couple of World Series together. Unfortunately, we didn't, the one time I went not with you was when LSU won. The other two times we did. Word travel fast. We just got the word. I was turning back to Jesus. So I said, all right.

So I'm sitting there. He pulled up out there. He said, he said, how has it going? and I said, we have the fatten catfish. We're going to celebrate. Because of the last son. The story of Luke 15, yeah. You swerved us into that way, Jay.

But I noticed what we do, even on the podcast, we have a guest today who I became familiar with when he played football for LSU because I keep up with all that. Oh, yeah. And I think it's more, people are like, they always say, what's the big deal? We live in Louisiana. I mean, everything about Louisiana, we're pretty much bought into. That's right. And we were all athletes way back in the day.

That is no longer a thing. So I think that's a step. That's what happens in your athletic career. You go play all these sports and you think about, boy, I wonder if I'm ever going to be good enough to, you know, play college ball. And no, that was the answer, the short answer. But then you just kind of evolve to where you become a sports fan. That's right. And I've always liked the passion of college sports.

I was hoping this, the new NIL thing where now they're getting money. I hope it doesn't change the passion about that. Because what I don't like about pro sports is that. It's just like they're just, yes, the job. They're doing it. And you kind of lose that passion. But I do think they should be getting paid. I do too.

Because the universities, and they're making tens of millions of dollars. In some case, SEC, billions with a B. So, yeah. My thinking was I wish they would have set it aside for those guys, and then they got it when they got through with the college experience. Some way to keep that, because you're right, I'm afraid we're going to lose that already with the switching teams every other year. Well, you've got to figure out some kind of cap system or this is just going to get crazy.

It's going to get wild, wow, west, yeah. Today we will be listening to one of our brothers tell him his story, and it's quite the story. I have a three-quarter-inch thick aluminum boat. I had the Cajuns build it for me. And one of somebody's dogs, old Daniel Edwards, he had his dog with him. And when the dog ran forward in the boat, he pushed down on the safety. And as this clawed cockle by boom, the shot went off.

And right now to this day there's a hole in the front of my boat where you sit. But then it's, you know, you got a little wall there where you're a little stash stuff. But there's a hole right there, a round hole. It had enough power to go through the aluminum, that thick aluminum. It went through that, but then just bounced around a little bit. No one hurt, but we have a story coming from our brothers right now. Well, and really, you know, what we're about is Jesus, and we've been in Luke and we've been in Acts.

And you notice when Jesus was going around, he just had a compassion for people that were going through difficulty or tragedy or illnesses or all kind of physical ailments, which showed you the character of God in some light, because it showed you that he cared. But he also would use that as when we all go through tragedy or difficulty, whether it's us or our family, or even if it's by our own doing,

because Jesus with equal enthusiasm, people that were, you remember the woman called in adultery, and, you know, he, he, because they were wanting a stoner. And here he goes, you know, shows her love and compassion. And really set a precedent when he said that statement, you without sin, throw the first stone. And he did eventually say, neither do I condemn you. Now go leave your life of sin.

Which in all these things were signs to, that shows you when bad things happen, it affects us our spirit and it humbles us. It makes us realize, you know, we're perishable. And well, here's Jesus. He has all the answers to all these problems, tragedies, and it may not be in the short term because he does say, you know, if you follow me, you will suffer. And most of the writers of this New Testament that we've been studying died horrible deaths

in the name of Jesus. I mean, they were tortured. persecuted and beaten because of Jesus. But there's a power in there to know that the reason we put our faith and trust in Jesus is because in the end, and even in the short time as far as our attitude and how we handle it, there's hope. But in the end, you know, we're going to win. Things will be made right.

It's kind of how you wrap your head around when bad things happen, which is used as an excuse in the world for why they don't follow God or put their faith and trust. in them. And Jesus, basically, that was his platform. I get it. Bad things happen, but I'm here. That's right. Well, and today, we've got one of those stories that's here with us is going to share his story. And look, I got to tell you, I skim and read a lot of books for guests that come on. And I'll say this before we bring our guest on. When I started into his book, he and his wife, I didn't skim it. I read it word for word.

It compelled me. It's one of the most alluring, inspiring books I've read in a long, long, long time. So we're going to take a break. When we do, I'll introduce our guests that we have here today. Welcome back to Unashame. And we've got Matt Branch on set with us. Welcome, Matt, to the Unashamed podcast, Into the Layers, we say. Thank you all for having me here today.

Oh, man. Are you from Stirlington? No, I'm from Rave. Like, I'm a local redneck like y'all are, and I can truly appreciate the setup y'all have here. I was admiring how clean it is out there. Wow. Like, our shit is like, it is a mess. Yeah, that's probably what ours looks like now.

Like, it's a macular. When I walked out to get mad, he was like looking around. I knew you would love this because I read your book. Which, by the way, whoever got my email or leaked it, I got like 10 ways to. HVAC. Yeah. I've got, because we talked about. this problem of bringing the mud in,

which most of the emails I got were basically like, why don't you just wash it off before you go in there? We talked about that. But it's not practical in the moment. You go duck hunting, you shoot some ducks. It's like you just pull in here and the mud. You're in a hurry. Right.

We're trying to get somewhere else. That's exactly right. We talked about some sort of car wash scenario, but I've got a bunch too. There's a lot of spiritual applications here. If you keep bringing the dirt into the house after a while, the whole thing is muddy. Yeah. It was affecting our ability to shoot our podcast because there was so much dust in here on the equipment.

So it was like something has to be done. So the guys have been doing a pretty good time. We appreciate all the response. We'll take the best maybe and revisit that. That's right. How to clean up the layer. It's clean on my standard. So Matt is a Louisiana boy, as we said, grew up hunting and fishing.

guess, a little bit of east of us. And he's written a book, and this is the book right here. Nobody's going to die today is the name of it. And you see him, he's got his LSU Union. And so we knew about your story way back when. And you told us when you came in, and I had forgotten this, that about four years ago, you met dad. And so one of our landowners that's right here next to us is George Franklin, who's awaiting the resurrection now, but his family still owns the land out here and you're also a family friend of the franklins and so he brought you down here to meet dad and i remember it now we actually mentioned it on the podcast we had just started the podcast when that happened and you said you a couple of people even had said oh i heard about you on the unashamed

podcast yeah so it was it was a crazy deal so i was uh just sitting at the house one day i get an email from a guy he said hey you want to be on my podcast and i was like yeah sure tell me about it and he said well i i heard about your story on the unashamed podcast and i was like when did those guys talk about me? Like, what, what they say about me? You know, I was kind of nervous. I was like, man, maybe they're talking bad about me. But, so anyway, I was sitting in my truck one day.

I was eating some Podna's barbecue. I actually kind of write about this in the book. And I was eating Podna's barbecue and sitting in my truck off 165 and listening to y'all's podcast trying to figure out, you know, what y'all said about me. And I'm just sitting there listening to what y'all are saying and waiting on y'all to call my name. And something just came over me and I heard like God's voice.

Like he called my name in that moment. You know, y'all were playing in the background, but God came through loud and clear. And like I started to get to shakes. I didn't know what was going on. Pulled back on the highway, drove to my house, crouched into my office, sat down, and I started typing. And I typed that book right there in four days. Wow. Four days, just nonstop.

My wife thought I'd lost. it or something. I was like, I, something's just coming out of me. I've got to get it out. I've got to get it on paper. Type it in four days and then sat on it for about three years and I was like, this thing's no good. Like, I don't trust myself, you know, it's no good. And eventually it just kept eating at me. Like, I got to do something with it. Just if one person buys it or thousands buy it, like I don't care. I've just got to put it out. And I did. And, you know, now here I am today to talk about it. That's amazing. It's pretty cool. Y'all are a part of that story right there. I did not know that until you said that. So I got to say something about the book. So like I said,

I read a lot of books because of guests on the podcast. And most time I don't have time. It's usually like a few days out. So I picked this one up and I said, I'm going to read this on my trip because we had a couple of appearances. So I was going to have a lot of plane rides. Well, I wind up doing it in one plane ride. Well, actually two to South Carolina. It was riveting. I mean, it's well done. And I love it that you did it with your wife. And so I'm going to let you tell your story. But I love the back and forth and her giving her perspective when you were going through all this.

And so just as a person who's done a lot of books with our family, I was riveted from start to finish. It's an amazing story. It's a God's story. You tell the story about the potters. But I didn't know that we were playing in the background. That's pretty cool that we were a part of that. Yeah. Yeah.

And I haven't told a bunch of people that, but now y'all know. So, you know, the work y'all do here in the back of the shop, man, it's, it's reaching a lot. It's doing a lot out there. Everybody always points that out because they show up thinking, well, this can't be the spot. But back beyond all the filth and the duck stuff, there's a little studio. There's a little studio. Well, my favorite question of most people on the back is, what did you think when you walked in there? But you were one I knew that would appreciate walking through what you did to get here.

Anywhere, when I step out of the truck, I got to make sure I'm not going to step on a snake or something, you know, like, I feel at home there. And like snakes don't scare me as bad. I got one less target for me yet. So it's like, it's not as big of a threat anymore. We've had cotton mouths end up in here who had the ride in here. And cotton mouths are here. So it's best to take a look.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. So Matt reminds me of our old buddy Triple J, Johnny Joey Jones. He lost both of his legs in Afghanistan. But he's always joking, making jokes like you do. made. All right, so let's, let's tell your story because it's, it's fascinating. And I want people to get the book, so you can just give us the overview, but tell us what happened to you, at least up until, you know, the hospital stuff. I got some questions for it. But tell us

what happened to you. Yeah, so it was December 28, 2018, 2018. It's been about a little over five years ago now. We were at Eagle Lake, Mississippi, which is just north of Vicksburg, about 30 minutes It's North of Vicksburg off Highway 61, and my family's had a farm over there for, shoot, probably 20 plus years since I was a kid. We've been going over there and deer hunting, duck hunting. And it's just a normal trip. You know, we took a trip over there just about every year right after Christmas and, you know, went and shot ducks and deer hunted and all that.

Were y'all hunting like a blind or out of the boat? No, so there's, it's like a Cypress break. Oh, okay. So there's like the way we set it up that much. morning is we were going to hunt in different areas. So there was a lot of water on the farm. It had just rained. So we had some new pockets of water and there were some birds and scattered all over in some new areas and new pockets. And so I was going to go hunt one pocket that we saw some birds in the day before. And I was going to go by myself and hunt because there's just a little

bit of natural cover. There weren't many places to hide. So I was headed in that direction and a series of unfortunate events that morning. It was a lot. But anyway, I ended up crashing a foyerler, flipping it off a culvert, landing in about five foot of water in a canal. And my plans changed. So I ended up having to walk like half a mile to go meet up with my buddies through the mud and muck and just terrible day,

terrible duck hunting experience. So we get over there. You're wet, cold, cold. Just terrible day. terrible day. Like one of the worst duck hunts you would think. You could think of as what happened to me. So I'll walk over there to my buddies and we're kind of loading up, you know, our gear trying to figure out where all the ducks were, you know, because we didn't kill as many as we wanted to. So we're trying to regroup and figure out where else we need to go try

and we're loading everything up and I had laid my shotgun down in the back of a Polaris Ranger. All right. Loading all the gear, decoys. I had stuck a mojo decoy in the side and the little holes on the side. You can kind of stick the pole in it. I was standing right there on the passenger side of the Polaris Ranger. We had a hunting dog with us, a black Labrador retriever. His name was Tito. It was my cousin's dog, actually.

And we had sent him after a duck to try to go find. It was a blind retrieve out in the middle of the field. He couldn't find it. Came running back. And we were all just kind of standing around waiting on the dog to get back to us. And when he did, he jumped up in the. the bed of the Ranger and it was kind of moving around for a minute trying to find a spot to sit you know in all the gear then all of a sudden we hear a loud bang just a crack it's kind of muffled didn't

sound like a blast you know because it was in the bed yeah well the dog had stepped on my shotgun the shotgun went off the bullet went through the sidewall of the ranger and hit me in the top of my left thigh and groin just like that and I remember I looked down I saw about a Coke can size hole in the Ranger bed and it didn't look real good you know and

but the weird thing like I didn't feel any pain or nothing like that like it didn't I didn't think it was that bad at first yeah so I kind of went to take a step back to see the damage and see how bad I was hit and when I did my left leg didn't move tripped we fell to the ground

and then that's when the adrenaline rush just ran over me like a freight train like every hunter's worst nightmare became my reality just like in a split second yeah so I screamed out you know I've been shot and I couldn't move like my blood pressure dropped immediately my femoral artery was hit by the blast the surgeons later on they told us my femur already looked like hamburger meat it was just gone obliterated that's amazing you didn't just bleed to death right there well man some of it was because I fell in the water that morning so my blood vessels has contracted I was freezing cold, probably on the verge of hypothermia.

Yeah. So that's kind of one of the strange things that happened that allow me to sit here today and cheer my story. But so the guys, they picked me up, loaded me and the Ranger called 911, and they sped off through the farm to the highway. They decided to take me to the highway instead of back to our camp, which where we were on the farm that day, it's about the same distance to both places. You know, usually you would think, let's go to the camp.

We might have first aid kit, you know, some. supplies. We can help him out. But they just said, no, we're going to the highway. Well, getting me to the highway, got me to the hospital probably 15, 20 minutes faster for the, you know, ambulance could get to me quicker. Save your life. Save my life. Because every second count it, you know, in that moment. So I pull up to the, we pull up to the highway and they pull me out, and lay me on the side of the road. And first responders get there. They were volunteer firefighters from Eagle Lake. They came up to me and they started to come up to me. And they started to cut my waiters off.

And that's when everybody realized, like, how serious the situation was. They said when they cut my waiters off and, um, sorry for the details here, but they said blood just poured out of my boot like water from a pitcher like you would be pouring water out of this water bottle. And they said my clothes were just stained red from the chest down. Basically, I had bled out at that point. Like, I didn't have any blood left in my body. And, um, they loaded, the ambulance showed up.

They loaded me up in the ambulance, speed, off down the road and I just kind of faintly remember, you know, drift and side to side in the curves and gone. Just blackness. Just gone. And, you know, I experienced death. That's when I went into cardiac arrest that day. They said later on the doctors told us they estimated I was in cardiac arrest for somewhere

around 45 minutes total. So by human standards, I should not be here. You know, should not be here. And, you know, experiencing death is something, I mean, obviously you would think it would change your life, but it has just shaken my world because it was then and there that laying on the side of the highway, I saw the truth of my life. Yeah. What I stood for, what I cared about the most. I saw the truth. And that day, you know, I was not proud of what I saw.

Yeah. You know, I was, I cared only about myself, you know, and having experienced that and live through it, it's just, it's changed me in so many ways, you know, it has. That's powerful. Let's take a break. So you wind up in the hospital. And again, I know the story intimately because I just read it. Twelve days, you're in a coma. They're doing surgeries.

In the book, this is where his. wife steps in. Where Matt just left off, he loses consciousness. And then the story picks up from her perspective, which I thought was a great way to tell it. Because now she's like reacting to it. And you had an infant? Your son was an infant. Yeah, Barrett. He was one years old. One years old. And so now you're getting it from his wife's perspective on, you know, and she's getting all the bad news because everything is like he's coding. They're having to move him to another bigger hospital because there was nothing else they could do for him in Vicksburg. It's where he started. So he winds up in Jackson, larger hospital. But I mean, literally, this thing is on a

razor's edge, like he said, he should have been dead by any other standard. I mean, this, we talk about miracles a lot and the idea what's a miracle, what's not. This is as close you're going to get to a guy that should have died and then should have had brain damage. I mean, because of the loss of blood, the whole thing. So you're in a coma for 12 days. Here's the first thing I want to ask you about because this struck me in the book. You got me in the prolog by the way, because you mentioned about these dreams that you had in this coma state. And so I, we've been talking a lot about this idea of, you know, what people's experiences and spiritual warfare and a lot of this stuff lately because we just studied the book of Luke. And I thought

it was fascinating some of the things like there was an awareness in your mind, but, but you were unaware because you're in a coma. So you don't really know what's happening in the world around you, but tell a little bit about that. Just, you're not going into them. But I'm just saying to how that impacted you and affected you. And why do you think that was? Because your wife also mentions during this 12-day period that she had a couple of instances where she felt like there was a spiritual, like there was almost a tug of war for you, for your soul, for all of it.

So I just found that whole thing fascinating. So get a little of your perspective. Yeah, it was such a strange thing. So for me, I was in a coma. I was out of it, right? So I'm having these vivid dreams. And when I say vivid, like I have dreams every night. But these dreams, I remember them like they were a part of my life.

It was similar to the world we live in today. It was just a little bit more chaotic. Like it was just crazy things happening all the time. It was strange. And I can't get into talking about all that. I actually thought about writing a book about some of the dreams I had, you know. But anyway, so I'm sitting there having these crazy dreams. And my wife is in the hospital.

And then they were letting her stay in my room in the ICU, which is usually not allowed, but they let her do it just because of the gravity of the situation. And she had these crazy experiences. Like one night she remembered up, she was asleep. She was woken up by all of my machines, monitors were just beeping, just going crazy. And she said the nurses and doctors, they started to come in and they were all concerned, like, didn't know what was happening. And she said she just was sitting there and experienced, like, only way she could describe it was just a dark, like, presence.

Like, just came in and just sucked all the air out of the room. And she said right then, there was like a little, have y'all seen those little handheld olive wooden crosses? They're kind of miss shaped, but you can hold them with your hand. There was one on the table beside her. She grabbed it and just started praying. And she said, soon as she started praying, that darkness, whatever it was, just kind of. dissipated and my monitors just stopped. They just poop just stopped. And the doctors were like, he's good. Okay. We got another day with him. We got another day with him, you know.

And so that was one crazy instance. But yeah, when I woke up, so I was living another life in these dreams. And I woke up and I thought they were real, like they actually happened. One of the dreams, sorry to say this, but I was at a big hunting lodge somewhere. Right. We on a big bird hunt. And the guy that owned it, rumored was he was worth, like, a lot of money. And in my dream, all right, he had asked me to marry his daughter in the dream. And I was, like, thinking about it in my dream. I was like, I don't know.

He's got a nice hunting lodge, you know. He's got a bunch of stuff. And so when I woke up, I was thinking that really happened. And I was, like, scared like Leanna was going to slap me or something, you know, because I was like, I thought I just showed up for the day to have a little person. seizure, you know. Yeah. But it took my family weeks to convince me like, no, you were, you were dreaming

that whole time. Like you were here physically, but you, in a, and mentally, you were in a whole other world, like living another life. It was crazy. It's crazy to imagine somebody being in a, in a, this state for days and days. Yeah. Well, it's almost like, to me, from reading the book, Matt, it was like you were almost caught in between, like you're, you're not, you're not.

You were here, but you weren't here. There's a lot going on here. That's why it intrigued me about the spiritual warfare side of it, because it was almost like it was this whole thing. It was all coming down. But this was almost over two weeks. Your wife is experiencing it as she's sitting there. It seems like it was your soul.

It was like a battle, yeah. I have a TV show about experiences like that. Yeah. It's like I survived or something. And they basically tell their dreams. I'm surprised they haven't contacted you. And because people, it's a fascinating. It is.

thing because we're all have that coming one day yeah uh like it or not so then you when you came out of the coma this is another thing i found interesting in the book then you were hallucinating because of the drugs you're on and are basically keeping you going and and so you can stand it because now you've lost your leg first it was so your leg is gone at this time yeah so they so my wife so she had to make the decision the first night to amputate my leg. Yeah, no, she had to do it by herself, you know, in a room of like 50 people, family and friends and doctors come out and they say, hey, we need to amputate his leg. If we don't, he's probably not going to make it.

What do you want to do? And so she's got to sit there and make this decision without me. Yeah. She can't ask me what I want, you know. Yeah, you're out. Yeah, so it was gone the first night. And so I woke up. And yeah, I was trying to figure out what was going on because I was hallucinating, like you said, really bad.

I had just, I had been medicated so heavily with all the surgeries I went through. They had given me 300 units of blood. So I had 300 units of blood, which roughly, and I might get corrected by a medical professional listening, but it's like every drop of blood in about 30 to 35 people, something like that. That's how much blood they had to give me to keep me going. It's a crazy story. I think you said that as far as anybody knows, that's most anybody's ever had. I don't know.

I don't know if it's a record. It's a lot. It was a record. In your same situation, I must admit, God becomes real, more real than any other time in your life. Yes. Because here you sit. You say, the Almighty intervened on your behalf. my man. I was utterly powerless. I had no control of the outcome. I was it was taken. I was I was completely

reliant on God and and his will from my life. When did it all start and still today? Fade into did you do when you finally came to and they finally got it under control and the leg is gone but how long did it take for you to say Lord thanks for that because that's right you were right on the edge actually

past the edge but Matt one of the things that struck me was that I loved your honesty and transparency in the book because once you realize your leg is gone like any other person part of your struggle back and forth was why did this happen you went back and replayed the day i mean like all those things

began to come to the forefront right because now it's like i've got to live this way and what am i going to do from here and you struggle with i mean like there was a real struggle inside of you and part of the reason you playing at lSU i found this fascinating because you talked about how that some of the things you wish you had done differently some of the things you wish you had pushed yourself into back when you were a college athlete also became part of your motivation to do what you've done in the sense that time. So talk a little bit about that, just kind of how that experience affected you and all that. Yeah, so that's the reason I wear my LSU jersey. Did you realize I made it? Yeah. Yeah, so that's the reason I wear the LSU jersey on the cover.

I mean, it doesn't have much to do with what happened that day, but it has a lot to do with how I responded to what I was put in, the circumstance I had to live with going forward. But yeah, so right away, you know, the medication and everything, it kind of clouded your mind. Like, I was just glad to be alive. I was joking around a lot, you know, cracking on the nurses, this and that. And then, but over time, probably about two weeks, when I got transferred or transferred to that main hospital out of ICU, that's when the realization of like, okay, this is my life now. Yeah. Yeah.

Like I'm missing my entire left leg. You know, I'm amputated at the hip, which is called a hip disarticulation amputation, which is quite the mouthful and kind of hard to remember. But the nickname for it is actually hippie. So whether I like it or not, I'm a hippie for life, which I think that's far out. You know, I dig it. It helps because you're alive and can speak of your troubles. Look, if you can't laugh with it, you can't lift with it.

You know, that's kind of what I always say. And most people wind up in a wheelchair. Yes. with this, by the way. So let's take another break. Yeah, so talk about that. You're in the rehab and you're in this process of figuring it out. And you went through a lot during this process, you know, you and God and you and your family and everything. Yeah, wrestling is what I call it. You know, wrestling with God just on why me, why not anybody else? What did I do that was so wrong, you know? And at that point in my life, I was raised right here in northeast Louisiana.

I went to church every Sunday, but I can honestly tell you at that point in my life, I didn't know who Jesus was, and Jesus definitely didn't know me. You know, I didn't have a personal relationship with him. I may have spoken the words, the salvation prayer, but they never entered in my heart where it matters. And it took some time for all of that to come about,

but immediately in the hospital, you know, I was just torn apart. You know, I was concerned about my life, but it was more my son's life, my wife, you know, what was their experience going to be now with me being literally half the man I was before, and, you know, how is it going to affect them moving forward? And I just kept fighting it, kept wrestling with it. And, I mean, what happens when you wrestle with somebody? You know, you come in pretty close contact with them.

And here I am wrestling with God. And I ended up coming in close contact with him. but I had a therapist came by my room one day, and this was part of the treatment there at the hospital. And I was letting her have it, you know, about why this, why me, you know, why has this got to be my life now? And she looked at me and she said, well, don't you think it's better that your son has a dad than not have a dad at all?

Wow. And right then those words just pierced me. And I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, here I am sitting here mad and aggravated. I've still got a chance to be a dad. You know, I shouldn't be here. And that, from that moment on, just set me on a trajectory. And that's where my LSU career kind of plays in.

So my LSU career was nothing special, right? I was what most would consider a less than average career at LSU. You know, I was a scholarship player. I played in 28 games. I never started on offense. I played an offensive lineman. And, you know, and it ate me alive when I, I ended up deciding to forego my last year due to having too many concussions. I quit.

And at the time, a young 22, 23-year-old self, I was like, well, it's going to be easier for me to tell people, you know, injuries took my career from me than me just not ever panning out. Yeah. I thought that was a good idea. And, you know, you live with that for a while. and then it just began to eat me alive, you know, like, gosh, I could have been so much better. I could have tried harder, you know. Even if my career playing time would have never changed, if I would have just gave it my best effort, I could live with that. But I knew deep down, like, I didn't give it my best.

I cut corners, you know, all that, and having experienced that with an LSU career and knowing how deep that hurt was, that's when it kind of pulled out of me like, okay, I'm faced with the same challenge right here. I can start cutting corners right here in the hospital, and I'll never be as good as I could have been with this disability that I have to live with. Or I can give it my best effort from this day forward and see what happens. And that's what I chose right then and there. I was like, I'm not going to repeat the past. I'm going to do my best to work as well. hard as possible to do as much and gain as much mobility back as I can with this disability.

But now you're hooked on to the power source. Yes. Of you get another leg. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, you know, what better hope does anybody out there who's going through an imputation have of ever walking again? What better hope, you know?

There's no hope. There's no hope than that. That's it. you know. But yeah, it's just truly a crazy story, you know. And then I ended up, you know, working really hard. I lost 110 pounds total, which I got to admit. Some of that was my leg. So that came off pretty quick. But it is a good weight loss plan. I haven't got anybody signed up for it yet. You know, you can just cut it off if you want. Yeah. You won't have the privilege of that's cutting it.

real thin. It doesn't come back. You don't gain that one back. So you talked about just like trying to figure that out. You got home and your son, you mentioned that the first thing he started doing was like knocking your, knocking your crutch out from your or running away with it, right? So how did he react to all that kind of just watching him? Because he sounds like one of these days I got to meet him because he sounds like a very interesting boy. He's a character, that's for sure.

But, yeah, I mean, it didn't phase him a bit. Yeah. I mean, that's what gets me, right? Kids, it's like, I mean, that person who told you that was so right on because, like, he had his dad back, you know? And really, I guess other than you not being around, he was so young, all he knows is you. And so all those struggles you went through internally wound up being playing themselves out and you being his dad. And now you being you, I mean, that's a lot. he'll get that chance to have the, you know, his life with you.

Yep. Which is incredible. Oh, I know, you know, it's, you know, now they see me and they ask me questions all the time. They're like, where's your leg? I'm like, it's in the bedroom back there, you know, I don't have it on right now. They're like, oh, okay, cool. Doesn't bother them, you know, and they pick, he even, like, barely'll even pick on me

now. He always brags about how he's faster than me. I'm like, dude, right? That's not like saying much, you know, you're faster than a one-legged guy, but one day he'll he'll realize like how dumb it was to say that. But yeah, no, it doesn't, it hadn't affected my kids at all. You know, what would affect them more is if I would just not be around, you know, and not give them my best effort that I'm capable of today, you know.

And that's what I've tried to do through all this, you know. But from the, what happened to your leg, is it painful now or is it? Mm-hmm. I mean, it's good. Yep. So, phantom pain. I don't know if y'all have ever heard. heard that term, but it's something that all amputees encounter. So it's the sensation that my

leg is still there. Like I can still feel it. Like right now, I feel like I'm wiggling my toes on my left leg, like still wiggling my foot around. But every now and then, like most of the time for me, I'm very fortunate. It's more of a sensation like I just feel it. But every now and then it'll flare up. And it feels like somebody is either electrocuting me, just like for a quick second and then they'll pull it off like a cattle prod or like either somebody stabbing me with a knife in my foot and every now and then it happens which i'm i'm fortunate that it's not frequent for me but for some amputees out there like it is a constant feeling of that which is very very difficult um for most people it gets better with time you know it just takes your brain some time to kind of

re-register like the nerve endings down there that nothing's there you know that this is normal now And your brain's fighting that and wanting to, like, say, you know, stress. Like, there's something wrong. There's something wrong. Could they get an apparatus from what you've seen so far because the medical profession is getting a lot better in this type thing? So. Tell the story about the guy. So the guy that did your leg for you is actually from Chicago.

Tell how that happened because that was pretty amazing that you had. happened upon that guy. Yeah, that was another crazy instance. So my story, whenever this happened, it went pretty much nationwide. Like, a lot of news outlets picked it up. I think ESPN picked it up. And the

title was LSU football player shot by dog. And immediately, like, you see that, you're like, I'm clicking on that story. Like, what happened, you know? It's kind of a travesty. They thought, oh, that's a cool. Well, it's a click-based story, right? It's clickbait.

for sure, but it ended up, you know, helping me in a lot of ways. But, yeah, so the guy that ended up building my prosthetic, an LSU, a big LSU fan who had a non-profit. Now you have an apparatus. I have one that I use. That had to have been good. Oh, yeah. It's very helpful.

It's still, it's not a leg by any means, but it's better than nothing. You know, it gives me the ability to use my hand. and a little bit more mobility and kind of freedom for doing certain things. So a guy, an LSU fan who had a nonprofit, he reached out to my dad, and he said, hey, I adopted a boy from India, and he was in an accident when he was very young, lost both of his feet. And we've had to deal with prosthetics for him for a long time. I know a guy who specializes in the amputation that your son has.

And he was telling my dad this. And he said, look, I'll pay to fly him. down to visit with your son with me in the hospital if y'all are okay with it and dad was like yeah sure why not you know so uh david roders his name he's in chicago just south of chicago illinois is where his practice is he flew into jackson and met with me and sat me down and just kind of just spelled it out for me like this is not going to be easy you know like i was in bad shape when he visited me the first time i was still in the hospital and he said you're going to have to work really hard if you want to walk again. And so I, you know, that's kind of what I set out to do. He really motivated me. And then we've had it.

We have a great relationship still to this day. I go up to Chicago once or twice a year to, you know, get him to tweak it and work on it and try to make it a little bit better. But yeah, so it's a pretty cool thing, you know, that clickbait title that felt bad at first, you know, that felt embarrassing to me. ended up being a way for God to be able to come into my life and help me to, you know, move forward and progress and everything. And even you telling about learning how to walk on it, I mean, again, this is all in the book. It's so fascinating. So you've gotten into, you've lost a lot of weight.

I mean, not just your leg, but obviously you've got yourself in shape. Because there's pictures in here of you like when you're right after you're playing days. You're a big old boy. Yeah, I was probably 280. Either day I got shot, I know. Big dude. Oh, wow. And so it's, it's seeing you now is so different.

So, but you, now you run, right? I mean, tell a little bit about that, which is amazing. It's hard to imagine. I would just watching you do that. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, getting back into exercising, fitness, diet, all that. Like, I had all this knowledge from my football playing days.

And so I kind of started to pull it all back out and kind of figure out what kind of training I could do, you know, with my new circumstance. And eventually I just kind of started to see if I could run some races, you know, crutch is how I do it. Just like I can run. Just like I have a, so I have a running leg that I use, a running apparatus, but it's, it's really best for just sprinting. It's not good for long distances. So long distances, I just use my crutches the way I came in here today. So that's how I do my races. And so I started doing that, just seeing. if I could finish a 5K. I was like, just see if I can do one.

So I'm out running around my neighborhood or crutching around my neighborhood. And it was funny, I was training for a race. And, you know, people would pull up beside me and they'd roll their window down. They'd say, hey, are you okay? You want to ride, man? They felt bad for you. They were like, what is this guy doing out here? Like, surely something's wrong, you know.

They think you must be in a hurry. Yeah, he's trying to get somewhere. He's chasing me or something. But they just look shocked when I look at them. It's like, no, I'm exercising. And they're like, oh, okay. Then I can just imagine and pull it off and be like, man, I got to start exercising. That's exactly what they said.

But then so, yeah, I started doing some like 5K races. And I had a lot of fun. You know, people are, there's a lot of people there and people supporting and showing up. And, you know, I started running the races and I started getting better. And I was beating, you know, most people with two. legs and that's another thing I imagine like what are they thinking when I pass them up in a race you know they're thinking this is embarrassing which is what we all go through when you were talking about that it made me think it was kind of odd that a lot of people would look and say I need to be like him

that's right I need to be more like that thing well when you were sharing your story especially with lSU you y'all thought about that passage in second corinthian seven and verse 10 which is a totally different context, but he kind of brings up this idea about regrets and how sorrow brings that out. And it says godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. And I just thought about it in that, because we all can look at our lives, you know, when my daughter was born with health problems, you know, she had a craniofacial issue. I spent three months doing exactly what you did. And this didn't even have anything to do with me.

But I was like, why in the world did this happen? It's not fair. Yeah, this is not fair. And I had one of the similar moments you had with someone else saying, well, she's alive. Yeah. And it's like, what am I doing here? You know, I have a daughter. I've got a responsibility.

I'm going to step up. But I think, you know, that's what stood out to me is this tragedy and an accident. you know, made you look at your life and start regretting a lot of things. And so I just wanted to highlight that in that it makes you realize that there's a God and we're not him. Yep. And I think that's the foundation for having godly sorrow, you know. He's, he's, look what he's done. He saved me. He, you know, because your story is pretty incredible on how you're even here. But I just wanted to point point that out maybe are you using any of those kind of principles in trying to help others because I know you speak a lot which is what I was trying to get yeah yeah so that's uh you know if he doesn't

do anything else he's done enough you know for me and that's that's what I try to remind myself but you know getting back into the fitness and working out you know I thought I was strong enough to do it all on my own at first like I thought like I can do it but you know first Samuel 2 9 says but no man will succeed with strength alone. Yeah. Somebody had it figured out a long time before I did. That's good. Like somebody had it figured out way before I did.

But so thinking I could figure it out, thinking I could handle this, I was strong enough, brought me to the realization that I'm not. Yeah. I'm not. That's it. You know? So thinking, here we go again. I'm back down into the pit, back down into the darkness. of this is the way my life is forever.

And I question for a time. I question whether do I really want to live the rest of my life this way? Do I really want to continue this journey? Because it doesn't look good. But, you know, new life, it always starts in the dark, right? Yeah. It always starts in the dark. And that's when, you know, God stepped into my life and really showed me like,

all right, are you tired of trying to do it things? your way. Like, let's do things my way for a change. And, you know, that's where the story we opened with about me starting to sit down and write this book. That's when everything changed for me. And, you know, all the things that I grew up with as a kid, my, you know, my faith, being in church, all of that, it's like, God just smacked me over the head and was like, did you think you had it all figured out? Like, you thought you had all, everything that I've done for creation. through all of time figured out already? Because why don't you go back and re-look at all this stuff

and revisit it and see if anything sticks out to you? And that's where Jesus just flooded me with his spirit. And I realized then and there, like all the regrets, all the sorrows, all the things that I experienced the day that I thought I was going to die, the life that I longed to live that day, was the life Jesus lived. Yeah. I saw that. I was like, man, I was like, Jesus is the answer. That's right. Right? Yeah. Like he is our purpose. Our purpose is to

walk it out with him. Pick up our cross and follow him. And then, and then I began to do it. You know, I began to try to live like Jesus. And I quickly realized like, man, I'm not Jesus. Yeah. Like, I can't do this. And that's when you realize like, man, I'm not very good. I need a savior. And that's when and just it all hit me, you know. And that's what I share today, you know, when I travel and I speak. And, you know, I've been fortunate to tell my story many times and, you know, a lot of church settings and I've spoken at schools and banquets and events, even some like corporate events. And, you know, it's not about me.

It's about him because ultimately that's what gave me my life back. When I was at the end of my rope, when I thought I could not go any further, God picked me up and said, no, you got a long way to go, buddy. And I'm going to help you get through it. And, man, it's just, it's been a crazy ride, crazy ride, but I'm just blessed and fortunate to be able to share my story, you know, quite a lot now. I highly recommend the book. Nobody's going to die today.

You can get it just anywhere books are sold. Yeah, so Barnes & Noble.com, Amazon, those are going to be your easiest places. I mean, I did self-publish the book, so I didn't know what I was doing. I was like, man, because I didn't know what to do when I wrote it, right? I sat on it for three years, and I was just like, I just kept getting pointed to, just put it out, just put it out and see what happens. Trust me. God was saying trust me with it. Just trust me.

And I put it out, and the first week it went out, I just basically posted it on my Facebook. And it hit the Barnes & Noble bestseller list was like the number one biography, top 10 overall. And I was like, I don't even know what I'm doing. Like I didn't do a pre-release. I didn't do anything like you're supposed to do. I didn't market it. I didn't put a dollar behind any advertising, nothing. I just put it on Facebook.

Some people bought it. They got it. They read it. They told some more people. They told some more people. And I've sold thousands of it. Yeah. And most of it's just all right here locally.

It's God's story. So we want you to check it out. Is there a place if they want to reach out to you about speaking or stuff like that? Do you have a place? Social media. I've got a few accounts on social media. So I'm on Instagram, Facebook. We'll put those up.

We'll put that up. Matt Branch is where you find that. And your wife is amazing too. And you have a little daughter now as well. Yeah, Charlotte. Which is fantastic. So thank you, Matt, for telling your story. Thank you for living.

Thank you for hanging in there and not giving up because you inspire a lot of people. Thank you all very much for having. me today. I really appreciate it. Appreciate all the work y'all do too, man. It's truly remarkable, you know, being from here and knowing y'all my whole life and just seeing where y'all have gone. It's truly

crazy. I remember you coming to my church and preaching a message at a wild game supper, you know, when I was a kid, and you were up there with your Bible and your duck calls, you know. It means the Lord works in strange ways. It's strange and mysterious. Hey, you don't have to tell me that. Look, I get it. So.

Thank you, Matt. I appreciate you being there, brother. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to BlazTV at blaztv.com slash unashamed.