CaptainKickass
08-04-2021, 04:21 PM
For two weeks, think about one. Let’s be one mind. Let’s be one heartbeat. One purpose. One goal. One more game. One. Let’s get it.
Charles Woodson is an insanely deserving player in my opinion. Whenever he would make an interception or cause another fumble my friends and I would yell "CHARLES WOODSON BITCH!" and rejoice at yet another amazing feat. I've never seen anyone else play like him, probably never will.
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The Gold Jacket reveal: https://twitter.com/ProFootballHOF/status/1420776133373607942
HENDERSON, Nev. -- Charles Woodson was a young player doing young player things when he first entered the NFL, a Heisman Trophy-winning No. 4 overall pick of the 1998 draft by the Raiders.
Some days after practice, he'd hop in a car with wide receiver Andre Rison. On others, Woodson would take off with running back Charlie Garner. Jon Gruden, then a young first-time head coach himself, would look on longingly as the cars pulled out of Raiders headquarters for parts unknown and mutter to himself, "Oh, no, there he goes."
Two decades later, Gruden laughs at the memory.
"He was broken in by some wild guys, I'll say that," Gruden, whose first-ever draft pick as a head coach was Woodson, chuckled recently. "We were a team full of characters. Characters with football character. And Charles was in the middle of it all.
"We were elated when he was there for us [in the draft]. It went Peyton Manning, then Ryan Leaf, then Andre Wadsworth, then us. Charles could play dime linebacker. Nickel. Corner. Safety. And all in the same series. He was one of the most decorated defensive players in the history of the draft. Yeah, we were excited. And he was a magnet, just attracting everybody to him. He enjoyed it. There were times we had to reel him in."
Woodson rewarded Gruden and the Raiders by being named the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the year. But if it seemed like he was distracted, or allergic to practicing, it never showed up on game day.
"Out of college, high draft pick, you're just kind of ready for life," Woodson reminisced. "Yeah, you're there to play football, but you also want to live as well, you know what I mean? I was that guy. I went hard in both areas -- football and then off the field, as well."
Enter the likes of Rison and Garner. Woodson is howling now.
"Those were my boys, man," Woodson said. "We went hard. That was the old school in me. We went hard some nights, but when it was time to get up and do that thing on Sunday, man, we were ready to roll."
Old school?
On the football side of things, Hall of Fame cornerback Willie Brown, the godfather of the Bump and Run, gave his blessing for Woodson to wear his old No. 24.
Charles Woodson was known for living hard in his first stint in Oakland, but he also made the Pro Bowl in his first four NFL seasons. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
"Willie Brown was a guy who made sure you understood what it meant to be a Raider," Woodson said. "The first thing he would tell us, 'There are 31 teams in the NFL, and there's the Raiders.' That's the kind of mentality you picked up when you got there. George Atkinson, Cliff Branch. Those guys made me know early on what I had to bring to the table -- be a tough, physical, fast football player."
Woodson went to four Pro Bowls and was twice named first-team All-Pro in his first four seasons with the Raiders.
Woodson's final game with Gruden as his coach? The "Tuck Rule Game." With Woodson coming on a corner blitz, he dislodged the ball from Michigan college teammate Tom Brady in the New England snow to send the Raiders to the AFC title game in January 2002.
Except ...
History books show no sack by Woodson, the fumble overturned into an incomplete pass by Brady, who would lead the Patriots to an overtime victory and hasten Gruden's departure and the Raiders' descent.
Sure, the Raiders went to the Super Bowl the next year (where they faced Gruden and his new team in Tampa Bay) and Woodson, playing with a broken bone in his right leg, had an interception on the third play of the game. But Gruden's Buccaneers thumped Oakland 48-21, and the Raiders have had only one winning season and one playoff appearance since.
Injuries and issues with Gruden's replacement, Bill Callahan, portended a frosty end to Woodson's tenure with the Raiders. In Game 6 of the 2005 season, Woodson broke his right leg. His season was done, as was his time with the Raiders, with his contract expiring after playing the previous two years on franchise tags. And as at peace as he was with moving on, he was more excited for the coming bidding war.
"My thought was, 'I'm going to have people crawling over each other trying to get to me,'" he said. "I thought I was that type of player."
Best of NFL Nation
Except ... the offers did not roll in. Not even from Gruden, who had taken Woodson to Fleming's Prime Steakhouse in Tampa to get a feel for him.
"Probably the worst mistake of my career [not signing him]," Gruden said. "He was at a low point in his career. There were questions about fit."
People crawling over each other to get to him? Teams were running the other way, with his recent injury history keeping him from playing in a full 16-game schedule since 2001.
"That stung a little bit," Woodson said. "You hear players that have been through Green Bay, especially Black players, say, 'Hey, man, that ain't where you want to be.'
"That's not the team I want calling me. ... I couldn't believe it. I thought there'd be multiple teams and a bidding war. It made me combative."
'It doesn't happen without Green Bay'
Woodson needed the Green Bay Packers more than he cared to admit at the time.
By 2006, he had two options: the Buccaneers or Packers.
Tampa Bay wanted Woodson, but only as a safety. Woodson, then 29 years old, still believed he was a cornerback. The Packers were the only team to give him that chance.
It didn't begin well.
It was 2006, Mike McCarthy's first season as a head coach, and he wanted players who wanted to be there.
"Initially when I got there, things were kind of rocky at the start," Woodson recalled recently. "I think that Coach McCarthy and everyone else around there was just trying to make my transition as easy as they could, but I was just very reluctant to allow myself to just be a Packer. We had kind of gone through some things there my first few weeks in the training camp. We had some issues that we had to iron out, but Coach Mike McCarthy assured me, 'Hey man, we want you here. You're going to be a big part of this team.' He was just trying to basically comfort me as a coach and let me know I'm a big part of the plans there in Green Bay.
"Those conversations like that, we were able to have throughout my career, my seven years there in Green Bay, to the point there that Coach McCarthy and my relationship became very solid over the years I was there. I certainly appreciate him for making me feel welcome when I didn't want to be welcome, actually."
By Woodson's second season, the Packers were back in the NFC Championship Game.
By his fourth season, he was the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year.
But it was Year 5 when Woodson got what he really wanted: A Super Bowl ring.
Despite breaking his collarbone during the game, Charles Woodson was all smiles when the Packers won Super Bowl XLV after the 2010 season.
In fact, he became a driving force behind their run to Super Bowl XLV as the NFC's sixth seed.
In the moments after winning the NFC Championship Game over the rival Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, Woodson held court with the team huddled in the center of the locker room. He told them: "For two weeks, think about one. Let's be one mind. Let's be one heartbeat. One purpose. One goal. One more game. One. Let's get it."
The Super Bowl itself was bittersweet for Woodson; he left the game in the second quarter because of a broken collarbone. But his impact on the team was immortalized on its Super Bowl rings, which were inscribed with the No. "1" along with Woodson's words of "mind," "goal," "purpose" and "heart."
"You see that '1' and the words, and it was like, 'Wow,' you're floored," Woodson told ESPN years later. "When you talk to the team in any capacity, you never know what's going to stick. You try to say something that guys can kind of grab on to. For that to be inscribed on the ring told me that it meant something, not only to the players but to the coaches. Now, there's something that we can actually hold on to forever."
Charles Woodson joins an illustrious list of players who both won the Heisman Trophy and were selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Player Heisman HOF
O.J. Simpson 1968 1985
Roger Staubach 1963 1985
Paul Hornung 1956 1986
Doak Walker 1948 1986
Earl Campbell 1977 1991
Tony Dorsett 1976 1994
Marcus Allen 1981 2003
Barry Sanders 1989 2004
Tim Brown 1988 2015
Charles Woodson 1997 2021
(Read the rest here: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/31943156/from-hall-fame-talent-hall-fame-production-nfl-legend-evolution-charles-woodson )
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e5/4d/9e/e54d9ebb83bc4f0bc9bdd7e5c19d6ea6.jpg
Charles Woodson is an insanely deserving player in my opinion. Whenever he would make an interception or cause another fumble my friends and I would yell "CHARLES WOODSON BITCH!" and rejoice at yet another amazing feat. I've never seen anyone else play like him, probably never will.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Gold Jacket reveal: https://twitter.com/ProFootballHOF/status/1420776133373607942
HENDERSON, Nev. -- Charles Woodson was a young player doing young player things when he first entered the NFL, a Heisman Trophy-winning No. 4 overall pick of the 1998 draft by the Raiders.
Some days after practice, he'd hop in a car with wide receiver Andre Rison. On others, Woodson would take off with running back Charlie Garner. Jon Gruden, then a young first-time head coach himself, would look on longingly as the cars pulled out of Raiders headquarters for parts unknown and mutter to himself, "Oh, no, there he goes."
Two decades later, Gruden laughs at the memory.
"He was broken in by some wild guys, I'll say that," Gruden, whose first-ever draft pick as a head coach was Woodson, chuckled recently. "We were a team full of characters. Characters with football character. And Charles was in the middle of it all.
"We were elated when he was there for us [in the draft]. It went Peyton Manning, then Ryan Leaf, then Andre Wadsworth, then us. Charles could play dime linebacker. Nickel. Corner. Safety. And all in the same series. He was one of the most decorated defensive players in the history of the draft. Yeah, we were excited. And he was a magnet, just attracting everybody to him. He enjoyed it. There were times we had to reel him in."
Woodson rewarded Gruden and the Raiders by being named the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the year. But if it seemed like he was distracted, or allergic to practicing, it never showed up on game day.
"Out of college, high draft pick, you're just kind of ready for life," Woodson reminisced. "Yeah, you're there to play football, but you also want to live as well, you know what I mean? I was that guy. I went hard in both areas -- football and then off the field, as well."
Enter the likes of Rison and Garner. Woodson is howling now.
"Those were my boys, man," Woodson said. "We went hard. That was the old school in me. We went hard some nights, but when it was time to get up and do that thing on Sunday, man, we were ready to roll."
Old school?
On the football side of things, Hall of Fame cornerback Willie Brown, the godfather of the Bump and Run, gave his blessing for Woodson to wear his old No. 24.
Charles Woodson was known for living hard in his first stint in Oakland, but he also made the Pro Bowl in his first four NFL seasons. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
"Willie Brown was a guy who made sure you understood what it meant to be a Raider," Woodson said. "The first thing he would tell us, 'There are 31 teams in the NFL, and there's the Raiders.' That's the kind of mentality you picked up when you got there. George Atkinson, Cliff Branch. Those guys made me know early on what I had to bring to the table -- be a tough, physical, fast football player."
Woodson went to four Pro Bowls and was twice named first-team All-Pro in his first four seasons with the Raiders.
Woodson's final game with Gruden as his coach? The "Tuck Rule Game." With Woodson coming on a corner blitz, he dislodged the ball from Michigan college teammate Tom Brady in the New England snow to send the Raiders to the AFC title game in January 2002.
Except ...
History books show no sack by Woodson, the fumble overturned into an incomplete pass by Brady, who would lead the Patriots to an overtime victory and hasten Gruden's departure and the Raiders' descent.
Sure, the Raiders went to the Super Bowl the next year (where they faced Gruden and his new team in Tampa Bay) and Woodson, playing with a broken bone in his right leg, had an interception on the third play of the game. But Gruden's Buccaneers thumped Oakland 48-21, and the Raiders have had only one winning season and one playoff appearance since.
Injuries and issues with Gruden's replacement, Bill Callahan, portended a frosty end to Woodson's tenure with the Raiders. In Game 6 of the 2005 season, Woodson broke his right leg. His season was done, as was his time with the Raiders, with his contract expiring after playing the previous two years on franchise tags. And as at peace as he was with moving on, he was more excited for the coming bidding war.
"My thought was, 'I'm going to have people crawling over each other trying to get to me,'" he said. "I thought I was that type of player."
Best of NFL Nation
Except ... the offers did not roll in. Not even from Gruden, who had taken Woodson to Fleming's Prime Steakhouse in Tampa to get a feel for him.
"Probably the worst mistake of my career [not signing him]," Gruden said. "He was at a low point in his career. There were questions about fit."
People crawling over each other to get to him? Teams were running the other way, with his recent injury history keeping him from playing in a full 16-game schedule since 2001.
"That stung a little bit," Woodson said. "You hear players that have been through Green Bay, especially Black players, say, 'Hey, man, that ain't where you want to be.'
"That's not the team I want calling me. ... I couldn't believe it. I thought there'd be multiple teams and a bidding war. It made me combative."
'It doesn't happen without Green Bay'
Woodson needed the Green Bay Packers more than he cared to admit at the time.
By 2006, he had two options: the Buccaneers or Packers.
Tampa Bay wanted Woodson, but only as a safety. Woodson, then 29 years old, still believed he was a cornerback. The Packers were the only team to give him that chance.
It didn't begin well.
It was 2006, Mike McCarthy's first season as a head coach, and he wanted players who wanted to be there.
"Initially when I got there, things were kind of rocky at the start," Woodson recalled recently. "I think that Coach McCarthy and everyone else around there was just trying to make my transition as easy as they could, but I was just very reluctant to allow myself to just be a Packer. We had kind of gone through some things there my first few weeks in the training camp. We had some issues that we had to iron out, but Coach Mike McCarthy assured me, 'Hey man, we want you here. You're going to be a big part of this team.' He was just trying to basically comfort me as a coach and let me know I'm a big part of the plans there in Green Bay.
"Those conversations like that, we were able to have throughout my career, my seven years there in Green Bay, to the point there that Coach McCarthy and my relationship became very solid over the years I was there. I certainly appreciate him for making me feel welcome when I didn't want to be welcome, actually."
By Woodson's second season, the Packers were back in the NFC Championship Game.
By his fourth season, he was the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year.
But it was Year 5 when Woodson got what he really wanted: A Super Bowl ring.
Despite breaking his collarbone during the game, Charles Woodson was all smiles when the Packers won Super Bowl XLV after the 2010 season.
In fact, he became a driving force behind their run to Super Bowl XLV as the NFC's sixth seed.
In the moments after winning the NFC Championship Game over the rival Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, Woodson held court with the team huddled in the center of the locker room. He told them: "For two weeks, think about one. Let's be one mind. Let's be one heartbeat. One purpose. One goal. One more game. One. Let's get it."
The Super Bowl itself was bittersweet for Woodson; he left the game in the second quarter because of a broken collarbone. But his impact on the team was immortalized on its Super Bowl rings, which were inscribed with the No. "1" along with Woodson's words of "mind," "goal," "purpose" and "heart."
"You see that '1' and the words, and it was like, 'Wow,' you're floored," Woodson told ESPN years later. "When you talk to the team in any capacity, you never know what's going to stick. You try to say something that guys can kind of grab on to. For that to be inscribed on the ring told me that it meant something, not only to the players but to the coaches. Now, there's something that we can actually hold on to forever."
Charles Woodson joins an illustrious list of players who both won the Heisman Trophy and were selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Player Heisman HOF
O.J. Simpson 1968 1985
Roger Staubach 1963 1985
Paul Hornung 1956 1986
Doak Walker 1948 1986
Earl Campbell 1977 1991
Tony Dorsett 1976 1994
Marcus Allen 1981 2003
Barry Sanders 1989 2004
Tim Brown 1988 2015
Charles Woodson 1997 2021
(Read the rest here: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/31943156/from-hall-fame-talent-hall-fame-production-nfl-legend-evolution-charles-woodson )
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e5/4d/9e/e54d9ebb83bc4f0bc9bdd7e5c19d6ea6.jpg