A couple of days ago, one of the best players to ever set foot on a field died after a very long and torturous battle with dementia. His name was Willie Wood and he played defense for the Lombardi-era Green Bay Packers.
Willie went undrafted after his college career playing QB (1st black QB in the PAC-12) and DB at USC ended–mostly because of persistent shoulder injuries and because…well…you know why. Anyway, he wrote letters to the NFL teams to advocate for himself. Unbeknownst to him, an old athletic instructor from Willie’s hometown also wrote to Lombardi directly to suggest he take a look at his former student. Within a week, Wood got a personal response from Lombardi telling him not to sign with anyone until Lombardi got there to talk to him.
Willie played Safety for the Pack and was widely considered the best player on the squad. Lombardi himself said of Wood, “Pound for pound, Willie was the best tackler in the game.”
He was also a turnover machine, holding the #2 spot on the team for all time interceptions with 48. His interception in the 3rd quarter of SB I is counted as the point at which the game went from competitive to a complete blowout.
After his playing career was over, he went into coaching, eventually becoming the first black head coach for a professional football team (the Philadelphia Bell of the short-lived World Football League) as well as the first black head coach in the CFL. Sadly, his coaching wasn’t as dominant as his playing and his football career ended after his one-year stint as the Toronto head coach.
Wood eventually moved back to his hometown of Washington DC, getting inducted into the 1989 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Willie died in an assisted living facility, having completely lost all his memories of his time in the NFL. When a reporter came calling a few years back to ask a wheelchair-bound Wood about his famous SB I interception, he had to leave without a quote because Wood had nothing to give him.
Willie Wood was 83.
https://www.packers.com/news/former-packers-safety-willie-wood-dies-at-83
As a Packers fan, I appreciate your good work. There’s a reason it’s called the Lombardi Trophey.
A sad ending for a terrific player. Although I grew up playing football, it is hard to watch the game now with the knowledge of what the sport does to the brains and bodies of the young men who play it. Even the brilliance of Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson can’t obscure the terrible price that most of today’s NFL players will pay.