What if the game you love became the reason you couldn’t play anymore?
That’s the reality for some young athletes at Shepherd Center, a neurorehabilitation hospital in Atlanta that has been helping patients rebuild their lives since 1975. For 50 years, its mission has been simple yet profound: restore hope, independence, and dignity after life-changing injuries or illness.
Recently, four young football fans traded hospital gowns for team gear — thanks to an idea sparked by Mary Beth Coke, Regions Bank’s Atlanta market executive. Coke, a lifelong football fan, serves on Women Shaping Shepherd, a group dedicated to raising funds for patient programs. When she learned the most requested outing for Shepherd Center patients is a trip to the College Football Hall of Fame, she didn’t hesitate. Coke purchased 300 tickets for patients, therapists, and families — giving them a chance to step outside hospital walls and back into a world that feels familiar and full of possibility.
As you’ll learn through this video, for these four football fans, their visit wasn’t just a field trip — it was a reminder that life after injury can still include the things they love. And for Shepherd Center and Regions Bank, it’s another way to make life better — on and off the field.