A pillow caused JT Reed to consider retiring from football.

Reed, an offensive lineman at Montana State, is “a wild sleeper” who often wakes up to pillows and blankets strewn all over the floor, he said. That was the case one morning in late October or early November 2023 when he decided to make his bed (something he often neglects). As he went to pick up a pillow, a stabbing pain shot through his back. His legs went numb. He couldn’t move from his bent over position.

“Again?” Reed thought.

It was a back spasm, stemming from a couple discs in his spine that had bothered him since high school. Spasms forced him to miss all of MSU’s games up to that point of the 2023 season.

By the time this latest muscle contraction occurred, he had developed a routine: he called MSU’s then-O-line coach

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