Battle Creek football player returning after being shot is an 'only because of God' story
BATTLE CREEK - First he heard a bang.
He remembers looking around to see where the noise came from. Then, it felt like his back was on fire. Something told him to look down the front of his shirt and then ...
"I saw my own blood and I knew then I had been shot," said Battle Creek Central senior Michael Stein.
What happened next then, and what is happening next now, is nothing short of a miracle. Back then, on that day in late August, his friends took him to the hospital, saving his life after he had been shot by a 357 Magnum through the seat while he was sitting in the front of a car.
What is happening now, is that he is back on the football field for Battle Creek Central, and playing just a matter of weeks after fighting for his life.
"I'm still shocked he is playing football again," Battle Creek Central football coach Lorin Granger said. "Immediately, when I hard the magnitude of the injury and what he was shot with, there was no way he was coming back. How can you get shot, literally point blank, with a 357 Magnum, and be playing football again, let alone be alive.
"It is an unbelievable, only because of God-kinda story."
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After the trauma of that day, Stein is finally ready to talk about what happened as he is slowly making his way back to the football field. However, he isn't telling the story because he wants attention for playing football again. He wants his story known so others don't find themselves in the same situation.
"I feel like my story needs to be out there," Stein said. "I was in the place I was supposed to be, but in a situation that wasn't good for me and with the wrong person that day."
Stein knows of the far-too-common occurences recently of the youth of Battle Creek being in the wrong place at the wrong time as shootings in this area have hit the headlines several times in the past few years. But he says, knowing that, means he always thinks about his actions. However, in this case, he wasn't fully aware of the actions of others that were around him that day.
"We were just chilling. Nothing was going on, just sitting in a car," Stein said. "But the person in the backseat had a gun. I didn't know he had a gun. I wouldn't have been there if I knew he had a gun. I don't surround myself with people that have guns. I don't want to see a gun, don't want to touch a gun. Won't be around people that would have guns. But I was in that situation that day, without even knowing it. The gun went off, I was fighting for my life, but I made it. And, that's my advice. You might be doing the right thing, but you have to surround yourself with people that are also looking to do the right thing.
"I get emotional thinking about it again, hard to think about it still. But I feel like I want my story out there. For me, it has given me a new appreciation for life. I feel like it can be a lesson to others, too."
The shooting has been called an accident by local police. The gun accidentally went off, went through the back of the front seat and into Stein's back. The bullet pierced his lung and then exited through the front of his body.
Stein says, that might have been the end of the story if not for two of his football teammates also in the car - Marlin Jones and Daqurion Ward. He said Jones helped him into a car that they took to the hospital and Ward drove, "if it weren't for them, I wouldn't be alive today," he added.
"How traumatic to be in that car for those others also, to see him bleeding and know, if you don't act now, he is going to die right in front of you. And, even if you do act, he might die right in front of you," Granger said. "He lived, but that doesn't take away the trauma they all experienced also. That stuff doesn't go away, just because he is OK today."
Stein's remarkable recovery has allowed him to continue his pursuit of playing football someday in college. The top receiver on the Bearcats, Stein and his coach spent the summer thinking he was on the verge of being offered several college scholarships to play at the Division II and Division I level.
Those thoughts went away, after he went to the hospital. But have returned, now that he is back on the field.
"Mike, of anyone on this team, had the biggest aspirations of trying to play college football. And for that to be taken away from him, that's tragic," Granger said. "He is trying to put some game tape together now in these last few games and maybe still create an opportunity for himself.
"Do I think he had a chance at a scholarship, yeah. In April, (Central Michigan University) was here asking about him. So yeah, it's possible he would have a scholarship already. I wouldn't have been surprised at all, if he had come out at the start of the year, had a great senior season and have a Division I scholarship available to him."
His drive to return had him on the field for the first time last Friday against Portage Central on homecoming, playing limited snaps. He is looking to be a full participant the rest of the way, starting this week against longtime rival Kalamazoo Central.
"This was supposed to be my year, playing for some college scouts," Stein said. "It was tough missing all these games early. But I am looking to make the best of it the rest of the season and make something happen for myself. When I was shot, the doctors said I wouldn't be able to play again. I had three surgeries for internal bleeding, had to recover from them, had to show that my lung was able to let me breath well enough to play. But I am back sooner than they thought and I am out there again.
"All of this has been motivation for me. Nothing can stop me from chasing my dreams, not even getting shot. Football means everything to me, so getting back on the football field was the biggest thing."
Granger says he is inspired by Stein. Yes, that he has fought hard to return to the BCC football team. But mostly, because of wanting to tell his story for reasons beyond football.
"His life is football. He did everything he was supposed to all summer, was everywhere he was supposed to be, to earn his opportunity to have a chance to play football this year and maybe at the next level," Granger said. "But he doesn't want to talk about that. He wants the younger kids to hear his story.
"He wants kids to understand the dangers of guns and what can be taken away from you. In this community, I don't think we can stop kids from being exposed to guns, but we can talk about being safe around guns. It's not the guns, it's how they are being used. Too often, there are adults who are putting guns in the hands of our kids, so we may not able to stop that. But we can start teaching the lesson of the dangers of guns. That's what he wants to tell kids. And, even though what happened to him was an accident, he says there is something to be learned from whatever happened that day with a gun in the backseat of that car."
Contact Bill Broderick at bbroderi@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on X/Twitter @billbroderick.
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Battle Creek Central football player is back playing after being shot
