Ru out for 2011

...to see Ryan go down like this when there couldn't be a better football player representing us hokies. let me explain and i apologize for it being so long but its worth it.

Three years ago, I had a hunch about RW because our defense was saying how he was the best back they played against all year while on the scout team. i'm sure you all remember the hype and with DE going down with the injury, i thought RW would have a solid year.

So I made colin, my newborn son at the time, a 34 jersey for RW’s first game against bama. Although we lost the game. as you know, he showed flashes of being great. So I put that pic of my son on facebook with a comment about how the bama game was RW’s coming out party and he was going to do great things that year (09-10). well after the game, he commented on the photo with something like, ‘thanks for the love, I appreciate it more than you know.’

After that and throughout the next two seasons, we kept in touch through facebook and twitter (as much as a fan and player could keep in touch without ever meeting) mostly talking football of course like the unc game in 09 (i sent him a message of encouragement after the fumble) and uva/tenn game to end the year as well as before the boise game last year and during the draft this year.

RW always quickly responded and always gave thanks and showed he cared about his fans.

Then last may, my wife asked him if he could send me something for her as my anniversary gift because she knows how much i love VT football and how much i followed RW.…he responded to her immediately and said, ‘no problem, anything for nick, he has been there supporting me since day 1’. so i was pretty hyped and couldn’t stop thinking what it could be…maybe it was a signed picture or maybe, just maybe a signed jersey or something like that.

it was BETTER, unbelievably better. It was something i could never have imagined.

Ryan Williams, arguably the greatest running back in VT history, someone who broke 4 major VT/ACC records in 09-10 gave me his GAME WORN maroon helmet from that record season, visor and mouth/guard still attached, personalized to me.

and after i thanked him on twitter, he simply said : ‘thank YOU for the love bro, you (my son actually) were repping #34 before 99% of anyone else.’

I still can’t believe it and its been 2 months since i got it in the mail. i probably thanked him about 30 times on twitter since than. lol It is seriously amazing to think that i have something that valuable from someone of that caliber of a player. i’m astonished that RW would do something like that for a fan he has never met, but simply someone who showed support during his VT days. its truly inspiring and will be the one of the first things i reference when i talk to my son about being a humble caring person.

It speaks volumes to what kind of player the arizona cardinals organization now has and its just not fair that something like this happened to such a good kid. I just hope he can come back and do the one thing that he loves to do so much and can impact the lives of thousands of other fans the way he did me and my son.

a true class act and a hokie we should all be proud of.

thanks for listening.

-coop.