He can’t run for first downs or touchdowns anymore, but David Wilson sure left Giant footprints in the memory banks of the New York Football Giants he leaves behind.
David Wilson, forever wearing a glass-half-full smile, forever strived to be great at every turn, for his family, for his friends, for his teammates, for his teams, for his city and for his state. And when his neck prevented him from ever being great again at football, he wiped away what he swore were tears of joy and implored his former Giants teammates to do great, and be great, because you never know when your opportunity to be great can be taken from you.
He wore a gray suit and it was not lost on Tom Coughlin that his tie was blue, and a couple of times, when he thought about how lucky he had been to live his NFL dream, how lucky he had been to have had the support he did along the way, his lips trembled and his voice cracked and it wasn’t long before he needed to pull out a white handkerchief to wipe away the teardrops rolling down his cheeks.
“Every time I watch a Giants game, or a football game, and see people play that I’ve actually had a chance to meet, I want to watch them go on the field…”
Pause.
“And I want to see them try to be great.
(In a quiet voice) “ ’Cause, it can be taken away.
“So when they go on the field, I want to see them every Sunday, or Thursday, Monday…”
His voice was cracking. The sound of cameras clicking pierced the silence outside the Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
“I want to see them guys do great. And be great.”
No pity, no regrets for David Wilson.
He began to cry when he thought about all the support he received, and what a privilege and honor it was to play with so many great players and for a coach who has won two Super Bowls.
“These are tears of joy, man,” Wilson said. “Don’t for a second you all think that I’m pitying myself, or sad, ’cause I got to live my dream. And I’ll set another dream and be great at that. ’Cause I always look at trying to be great in whatever I do.”
He was a Giant for only two years, and yet he all but wrote a sign for all to see that would have read: I want to thank the Good Lord for making me a Giant.
“When life knocks you down, I always say, ‘Plan to land on your back,’ ” he said, a few minutes before the emotion of the moment began to overcome him. “Cause if you can look up, you can get up. If you fall flat on your face, it can kill your spirit.”
The end of his football career at age 23 could not kill his spirit, or amazing grace. He never stopped believing he would make it back six months after spinal fusion surgery. Then he suffered that burner last week, and everything changed.
“It was a scary feeling, you can’t hide that fact,” Wilson said.
He wouldn’t stop believing, wouldn’t stop smiling. Ultimately, God had other plans for him.
“I prayed that the doctors would give me the same answer that God would give me if I asked straightforward,” Wilson said. “We don’t have that capability. I can ask, but God works through people. I asked him to do that with the doctors and they gave me the answer. That’s why I’m comfortable with that answer.”
Everyone likes him. Everyone mourns the loss of a brother forced to give up No. 22 and the game he loves.
“For him not to be playing it anymore is really sad, honestly, and it’s something that I can’t relate to, no one can,” Victor Cruz said.
If David Wilson’s former Giants teammates are as driven to be great as David Wilson has asked them to be, as he has been, they’ll have a chance.
“And that’s what this organization’s all about, and he knows that, and I know that’s what he wants for us just as bad as we want it,” rookie linebacker Devon Kennard said. “It’s a great, great message that he left. He’s a Giant forever, and he’s still a teammate to us.”
They should all want to be great for themselves. Now that Wilson will be living vicariously through them, there will be Giants motivated to try to honor his wishes.
“Just the fact that he should be out here with us, but can’t and stuff,” Kennard said, “this just gives us even more reason to want to go out and be successful. This game could be taken away from us at any point. It was an unfortunate deal for him, and that could have been any of us.”