Mascot details mishap ‘miracle’

For years, Dan Meers has delighted local fifth-graders as KC Wolf, official mascot for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Each year, he’s shared a few nuggets of wisdom, pearls of advice, and a few lighthearted jokes along the way.
Wednesday’s message, delivered at the annual Drug Abuse Resistance Education graduation ceremony, was a bit more poignant.
Meers captivated the crowd with his retelling of a near-fatal stunt attempt that added a few unforeseen items to his bucket list.
“I’m not only an NFL mascot, but also a failed bungee jump survivor,” Meers confessed.
The accident came the afternoon of Nov. 23, 2013. The plan was for Meers to bungee jump out of one of Arrowhead Stadium’s light fixtures, where he was to plummet about 20 feet until the cord snapped back, and then send him across the stadium on a zip line.
“But instead of falling 20 feet, I fell 75 feet and hit the seats in the upper level,” Meers recalled.
The impact of the collision not only broke two of the metal seats from the concrete mezzanine, but also several of Meers’ body parts.
“After I hit, my body immediately went into shock,” he said. “I was shaking, trembling all over, really struggling to breathe. I was scared. All I wanted to do was get down.”
But zip lines are much like roller coasters, he continued. “You don’t just stop the ride part way through.”
The cord yanked him back up into the air, as he fluttered, broken, across Arrowhead Stadium, 260 feet above the turf.
“I wish I had time to share everything that happened to me that day,” Meers said. “But the fact I’m still here, and I can stand up here and share this story, is nothing short of a miracle. I’m not supposed to be here.”
Meers broke seven ribs, had a collapsed lung, shattered his tailbone, gashed open his leg (which required several units of blood to replace) and cracked another bone in his lower back.
Most seriously, he broke a bone in his back, which required surgery the next day.
Over the next nine days, Meers laid in a Kansas City hospital bed.
“I thought a whole lot about my life,” he said.
His reflection brought about three overriding lessons.
“No. 1, I want to live every day with character, with purpose and with passion,” he said. “As a friend used to tell me, life is like a jug of milk. We all have an expiration date. The only difference is our expiration date isn’t printed on us. Today is God’s gift to me. I get to choose how I spend it.
“No. 2, the most important things in life are not things,” he continued. “The most important things in life are relationships. I spent nine days in the hospital, and not once did I think about what kind of car I drove. Not once did I think about how big my house was. I didn’t think about whether I had the newest smart phone. I didn’t think about whether I had the latest fashion clothes. It wasn’t my things that got me through therapy and rehabilitation. What got me through was my faith, my family and my friends. All three of those are relationships.”
Reaching the third epiphany was perhaps most important, he said.
That came a bit later, as he drove to physical therapy months later.
“I woke up, and my body was in all kinds of pain,” he said. “Emotionally, I was worn out. I don’t know how many of you have had constant paint, but it is extremely exhausting, both physically and emotionally. It’s easy to become discouraged, and very easy to become depressed.
“I was having a pity party, but as I drove to my physical therapist — I called him my physical terrorist — I listened to a guy on the radio talk about how every morning, everybody has something to complain about, and they always have something to be thankful for. Whichever one we focus on will dictate how we spend our day.
“Yeah, I could complain about my seven broken ribs,” Meers said. “Or I could be thankful for the 17 good ones that aren’t broken. I could complain about my collapsed left lung, or I could be thankful for the fact I had two lungs, and the other one was working just fine.
“For the first time that day, I told God thanks for that pain,” Meers continued. “I’ve thanked God for my blessings many times. Thanking him for pain is a lot harder. But if I couldn’t feel pain, I’d either be dead or paralyzed. Death. Paralysis. Pain. I got the best of the three.”
He closed his presentation from a quote he ascribed to Mother Teresa: “It’s OK to have pain in your life. It’s not OK to be one.”
Several students earned special recognition. Conor Andres, Carly Dreher, Payton Houk and Mercedes Wools read essays about how their personal commitment to remain free of illegal drugs and alcohol.
Lonna Belshe, Caiden Cloud, Macie Hoag and Cali Riley led the audience with the flag salute. Jake Skahan, Maliyah Walls, Cody Wille, Jay Lynn Collins, Travis Wanker, Danika Larios, Kadin Smith and Jesse Taylor led their classmates in a dance routine to Aretha Franklin’s classic “Respect.”