Human interest story on Addai

[CaptainHook]

A quick slant pass over the middle. LaJuan Moore read it, closed fast and made a tackle. Bang-bang. It was fundamental football, a routine play in an unremarkable game between Houston high schools.

Except Moore didn't get up.

Sharpstown teammate Joseph Addai was watching from the sideline. Addai had seen injuries. He had seen players slow to rise. This was different. He knew it immediately.

"Something came over my body. I'd never felt anything like that before," Addai said. "That's the first time I cried."

A moment in 1999. Two lives changed.

Moore still lives in Houston. He is paralyzed from the chest down. He has the use of his arms, but not his fingers, and he gets around efficiently enough in his motorized wheelchair.

Addai went on to win a national championship as a junior running back with Louisiana State University. Two weeks ago, the Indianapolis Colts made him their first-round pick in the NFL Draft, the heir apparent to departed Pro Bowler Edgerrin James.

The roster doesn't say so, but Moore and Addai remain teammates. Closer: They are bound for life.

"I start a sentence," said Addai, "and he finishes it."

If Colts fans want to know about the man the team invested in, they can read about Addai's blazing 40-yard-dash time or the range of skills that stamp his exceptionally well-rounded game. Or they can listen to LaJuan Moore and his mother.

They can learn about how Addai has both carried his friend and been uplifted by him ever since that awful day. Addai carries Moore up stairs, or into their senior prom. Moore picks up Addai after tough games or bad days. Brothers in arms, they have become.

"He does everything I do here at the house," says Moore's mother, Charlotte Beverly, who quit her job to stay home and care for her son. "He feeds LaJuan, he dresses him, he bathes him, he takes care of his medicine. I don't have a problem when LaJuan goes to see Joseph, or I go on a little vacation, because (Joseph) takes care of everything. He makes sure."

 

Fast friends

Addai's parents, Joseph and Joyce, emigrated from Ghana in 1982, the year before Joseph Jr. was born. Young Joseph and LaJuan grew up in the same southwest Houston neighborhood. They knew of each other without knowing each other.

That changed in their freshman year at Sharpstown. The friendship was immediate and strong. They laughed at the same things. They laughed at each other. They liked the same sports and music and movies and people.

"It's like we were the same person," Moore said.

"Some people, you've got to figure them out a little bit, but not us," said Addai (pronounced uh-DIE). "We clicked up quick, real fast, and when (the injury) happened, we got even closer."

It took most of an hour before Moore was examined, immobilized and loaded into an ambulance to be transported to the hospital. The game resumed. Sharpstown lost. Hardly anyone noticed.

The entire team and a group of fans, probably 100 people in all, went directly to the hospital. There were tests and tears, prayers and surgery. Everyone was sent home.

Addai kept coming back.

"Every day he'd be at the hospital. I'd wake up, and there he'd be," Moore said.

Addai went on his lunch hour. He went as soon as football practice ended. He stayed through dinner and the evening, and sometimes beyond.

"Sometimes they'd tell me you have to leave, but I found a way to just stay there," Addai said. "I'd spend the night."

Moore, a safety, was leading the district in interceptions with four in as many games when he suffered the spinal cord injury. He was a college prospect and an integral part of the team. That's where his thoughts wandered as he lay in his hospital bed.

 

A stirring return

Two weeks after Moore's injury, Sharpstown played Houston powerhouse Lamar. The Apollos were stretching during pregame when a ripple went through the crowd.

"All of a sudden, they're bringing LaJuan. Here he comes in a wheelchair," said Mike Mitchell, then Sharpstown's defensive coordinator, now the school's assistant principal. "Joseph was so excited. They couldn't stop him: He ran through people. He ran over people.

"We hadn't beat Lamar in 15 years. Joseph ran for 100-some yards and two touchdowns, and we won 36-26."

It has been that way ever since. Joseph is LaJuan's legs. LaJuan is Joseph's strength. One plays for the other. One plays through the other. Addai, the Episcopalian, prays that Moore will walk again. Moore, the Baptist, prays for Addai's protection and prosperity.

It's as if everything has changed and nothing has changed.

"Joseph would never abandon his friend," said Joseph's mother. "That's how his nature is."

Nor has Moore forsaken Addai. Moore lives his friend's achievements; he contributes to them.

When Addai left for LSU, Moore became a regular at Tigers games. He rode to Baton Rouge with Joseph's sister, Josephine, or his brother, Jeffrey. He came with Mark Boone, the Westbury High tight end he tackled on the play that caused his injury. LaJuan went with his friends, with Joseph's friends, with friends of friends.

Joseph and three teammates requested and received an on-campus apartment with full handicapped access. Moore was right at home.

"Everybody on the football team knows who he is," Addai said. "Even the girls know who he is."

It's no wonder. Moore's attitude is irresistible. From the time he went down, he and others say, he has never been down.

Moore cites the example of a young boy playing, running, walking all day; going to the store for his mother; then walking and running some more.

"Some kids get tired of walking," Moore explained. "It's like I'm on vacation right now."

 

No complaining

Moore still loves football. He loves watching Addai, and he loves the competition, the strategy, the personnel, the statistics. He studies the game.

He compiled files on all 32 NFL teams, their needs and the available talent. Several weeks before the draft, he told Addai that if the New York Jets didn't take a running back, Addai would be drafted by the Colts.

"He thinks he's the black Mel Kiper," Addai said, referring to the ESPN analyst. "He knew Reggie Bush wasn't going to the (Houston) Texans a long, long time ago. He was making bets on who was going to what team. He's like a psychic in a way."

Moore sees good things for Addai. He sees a player who can run inside and outside, set up in the backfield, in the slot or split wide, catch the football and block. He sees a player with the multifaceted skills that characterize James.

Addai is 5-11 and 214 pounds, almost precisely James' size, but he is no James -- not yet, anyway. But he has one thing James lacked: a third gear. Addai's 4.43-second 40-yard dash was the quickest run by a running back at the 2006 National Football Scouting Combine. He was timed at 4.37 unofficially.

Addai rushed for 911 yards and nine touchdowns as an LSU senior. He was leading the Southeast Conference at 107 yards a game when he injured an ankle in the seventh game, hobbling him for the rest of the season. Project Addai's pre-injury statistics over the Tigers' 13 games and you get 1,391 yards.

"He'd have probably been the SEC rushing leader, caught 30 or 40 balls out of the backfield for another 300 to 500 yards and been blocking his tail off," LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher said.

"But the best thing, he's going to be great for their locker room. Whatever you ask him to do, he's got one answer: 'Yes, sir.' Kids today need a nine-page explanation of why you want them to do something. No. Not Joseph. When the other guys complain, he puts a stop to it."

If Moore doesn't bellyache, Addai sees no reason for anyone to do so.

Addai is looking for a house in Indianapolis. It's safe to assume it will be wheelchair-accessible. Moore will be his frequent guest and a regular at the RCA Dome, and on the two occasions each season that the Colts play AFC South brethren Houston, sorting out loyalties will present no problem. Moore will be wearing a No. 29 Colts jersey.

Teammates then, now and forever.

 

link to Indy Star

[piratesownninjas]

How can you not root for the guy?

[Swiss Cheezhead]

[Raider.Nation]

Good to know I invested my 1.02 in a solid young guy...

[BigTen]

Colts got a very good football player in Addai and and even better person. I am an instant Addai fan.

[forever in debt to mo lewis]

"he bathes him"

 

but no seriously...nice story

[Otis]

"he bathes him"

 

 

1480207[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

This seemed a little odd to me too.

 

But I agree, nice story.