Driven by Donald Driver

Author:Donald Driver [Driver, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-34915-4
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2013-10-22T04:00:00+00:00

AFTER MY BREAKOUT year in 2002, I was looking forward to another great year in 2003. But before the season began, tragedy struck the Packers family in a way that affected us all.

I believe in God and that everything I do is because of Him. If I don’t have a relationship with God, I can’t love my wife and kids the way I’m supposed to love them. And yet, when I see bad things happen to good people, my faith is really tested. It has happened so many times.

In May 2003 I was reminded that football comes second to family when my receivers coach, Ray Sherman, lost his fourteen-year-old son, Ray Jr., who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Tina and I had just arrived back in Green Bay for the off-season minicamp. The phone was ringing off the hook.

Little Ray had shot himself.

His dad was a gun owner and collector and had left an unlocked, loaded gun in his garage.

Tina and I arrived at the police station, where Ray and his wife, Yvette, were waiting. Yvette was inconsolable, and Ray was just trying to hold everything together. Tina held Yvette, and they cried. Ray and I walked around the police station. He kept asking, “Why? Why? Why did this happen?”

All I could say was “We don’t know. We’ll never know.”

No one knew what Little Ray was doing. Was he playing with the gun? People assumed it was suicide, but if you knew Little Ray, you knew that wasn’t the case. He loved life. He wasn’t able to take his own life.

Ray told me he and his son were about to go to the movies to see The Matrix.

“Maybe Little Ray was playing, like the movies, and he pulled the trigger because he didn’t check to see if there were any bullets in the gun,” Ray said.

I could see a young boy doing that. What a tragedy.

• • •

WE OPENED THE 2003 season at Lambeau Field against our archrivals, the Minnesota Vikings. My whole family was in town for the game.

During the game we ran a play we called “all go,” as all three of Brett’s receivers headed downfield. My job was to run a seam route, to find an opening between the defenders, and as soon as I was open, Brett’s job was to find me. I was running down the left sideline, and on this route Brett preferred to throw over my left, outside shoulder because my defender most likely was going to be inside on the field. I had to turn around to catch it, and when the ball came, I stopped, jumped up, and grabbed the ball, but my momentum was such that I did a complete heels over head flip.

I landed on my head, and as I lay on the ground I felt like I was paralyzed. I could see and I could hear, but I couldn’t move a muscle.

“Trainers!” I could hear teammate Robert Ferguson screaming in fear. “Trainers!”

The trainers ran up to me.

“Drive, Drive!” they were yelling.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.