On Friday evening, former UCLA lineman Nick Ekbatani was seriously injured in a motorcycle vs car accident on PCH near Beryl in Redondo Beach. (h/t to Kenneth Powers with the first note regarding Nick.)
According to the fundraising page set up on Nick's behalf, here is the description of what happened:
On saturday night our brother Amir "Nick" Ekbatani was riding his motorcycle down PCH and Beryl when a taxi cab in the oncoming lane struck him on his left side. He was pronounced 90% dead when the police showed up and was rushed to the intensive care unit. Nick has no recollection of how he got to the hospital. The tragic part of this story is that the doctors had to amputate his left leg.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Nick and his family during this difficult time. We know the road to recovery will be difficult, but Nick's UCLA family will be there to offer their support.
Ekbatani came to UCLA from LA Harbor College and attended South High School in Torrance. In 2008 he started all 12 games, and was named as an honorable mention the Pac-10 All Academic Team. In 2009 he battled a knee injury and played on both the offensive line and special teams. He had a tryout with the St. Louis Rams after his UCLA career.
He had moved on from playing football to writing about it, working for ESPN on recruiting, in particular, offensive and defensive lineman. He was listed as the contact for Nike's "The Opening' camp (where Christian Morris was interviewed) for linemen. You can find some of his personal musings here on his blog.
Please leave your thoughts and wishes for Nick below, on his facebook, or tweet him.
If you can, please donate to the group fundraising cause to assist with the purchase of prosthetics and other expenses. Every time I check the page, the number keeps increasing - that's the power of the UCLA Community. Nick's friend will post updates to that page.
Get well soon, Nick.