Mike Woods: The power of a positive life
In a game of heroes, Mike Woods stood out for his courage under adversity.
When the former Baltimore Colts linebacker died last week at age 54, he was not so much a victim of the 1982 shooting that left him a quadriplegic as he was a monument to the human spirit when confronted with the worst of situations. His career in the NFL over at 27, he taught the rest of us for the next 27 years not to bemoan our piddling disappointments.
If Mike could handle his cruel fate, then we certainly should be able to handle ours. That was the message that so many who knew him came to realize, delivered ever so eloquently by a man who refused to quit or be bitter.
"Mike was destined to be heroic in a different way," Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, said Wednesday. "We deal in the business of heroes in the NFL. We all know some of the incredible heroes that exist in day-to-day life, and Mike was destined to be one of those inglorious heroes.
"I say inglorious only because [his life] was not a reality show, and he didn't have Monday Night Football covering him every day of his life. He woke up each day wanting to stay positive. That's what it's about."
Irsay had just started working full-time for his father's team in 1982, when Woods was shot by a 17-year-old assailant in a seedy part of Cleveland. Woods, who just completed his fourth season in the NFL, was picking up his father from an all-night poker game. While doctors fought to save his life over the next few days, Woods told new Colts coach Frank Kush, "Don't give up on me, coach" when Kush and general manager Ernie Accorsi visited him at Cleveland's Mount Sinai Hospital.
He meant that he wasn't finished as a player. But of course he was.
"Mike always thought he could beat this paralysis," said close friend and teammate Ron Fernandes.
And even when he knew he couldn't, he soldiered on, getting married, raising a family, earning his degree, creating a new life after the old one had been ripped away by a bullet in the neck.
"It had tremendous impact on me," Irsay said of the shooting. "It was very difficult to see someone so big and so strong like that. He literally represented the upper echelon of NFL talent in terms of raw ability. He was like the Lawrence Taylors, the Chip Banks. He never ascended to that All-Pro level, but he was that kind of talent."
He was a hero to everyone who knew him, but especially to his oldest son Shaun, who played football briefly at Bowie State under another of Woods' Baltimore teammates, Sanders Shiver.
"He is definitely and truly my hero," Shaun Woods, 36, said. "When he was playing football, I was here in Cleveland. After he was shot, he could've given up. But for well over 25 years, he stuck in there and supported me and was my greatest cheerleader, my best friend. I could feel his support in everything I've done and been able to accomplish in my life.
"I'm proud I was able to have him in my life all these years. He watched me grow up and was there every step of the way."
Maybe it's best for us to remember Mike as Accorsi remembers him. Accorsi was continuously amazed at the inner strength Woods displayed throughout his ordeal.
"I don't remember Mike without a smile," Accorsi said.
Baltimore Sun photo by Irving H. Phillips Jr.
Comments
This should and could have been a well-deserved tribute to the man and his spirit. Too bad you had to ruin it by thinking that anyone in this town actually cares what anyone named Irsay thinks about Mike Woods. Or anything else, for that matter.
Posted by: Fang Guy | June 6, 2009 4:44 PM