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March 24, 2006
Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!
Somehow “retirement” and “the age of 28” don’t belong in the same sentence, especially when the subject is Jerry Azumah.
Azumah retired from pro football Thursday after a successful but too brief career with the Chicago Bears. He had been slowed by injuries and surgery – to his neck in 2004 and his hip last year. He had surgery again in January.
I recall many afternoons in the slanting orange sunlight of autumn watching Azumah run the ball for UNH. My son, Yuri, was a classmate of Azumah’s and covered the Wildcats for the Monitor.
Yuri and I commiserated on the phone today about Azumah’s retirement. Unlike many athletes, Azumah won Yuri’s respect on and off the field. He worked hard, preparing for a life with or without football. One of Yuri’s regrets is that when he saw Azumah on graduation day, he didn’t think to have his picture taken with him.
Azumah, who came from Worcester and whose parents were from Ghana, played on UNH teams that would have been mediocre, or worse, without him. He was not a big man – about 5-10, 185 – and opposing teams could key on him all game long. Even so, Azumah rushed for 6,193 yards, an NCAA Division 1-AA record.
Yuri’s best single memory is a 95-yard touchdown run. Azumah lined up at about the goal line. He took the handoff, burst through the line, dodged a defender, cut toward the sideline and streaked to the opposing goal. Yuri looked up at the clock. Twelve seconds had elapsed. That’s a man running more than 100 yards in pads and a helmet, on chewed-up turf, in 12 seconds.
As a Bear, Azumah played defensive back.
“I couldn’t figure out why I rushed for more than 6,000 yards, and all of a sudden I’m running backward,” he joked at his retirement press conference, according to the Chicago Tribune. “When I first came in here, I didn’t even know what a backpedal was. And then all of a sudden, I was covering Randy Moss.”
Azumah had 10 interceptions and broke up 42 passes. He retires as the No. 3 punt returner in Bears history. As a kick returner, he made the Pro Bowl.
At UNH, he is known as more than an ex-football player. He is also the youngest alum to donate more than $100,000 to the school, a gift to improve weight-training equipment for UNH athletes. In his playing days, he was renowned for his work ethic in the weight room.
In Chicago, according to the Tribune, he started a foundation, the Azumah Student Assistance Program.
Some might say Azumah could afford to give back. After all, he made millions. But his career ended before he qualified for status as an unrestricted free agent, which would have meant an even bigger contract. In my book, he is an exemplary citizen.
While Yuri and I – and surely other Azumah fans – lamented his early forced retirement, Azumah himself was upbeat. He called Thursday “not a sad day (but) a good day” and impishly challenged the assembled sports writers to a 40-yard dash.
“Chapters end,” he said. “And other chapters open.”
Talk about going out in style.
Posted by Mike Pride at March 24, 2006 06:42 PM