BOYHOOD HERO REMEMBERED
Esks GM recalls perseverance of late lineman Byrd
It will forever be one of the most inspiring stories in the gridiron game’s history.
When Dennis Byrd became one of the lucky ones to walk again after suffering a broken neck on the football field, it became the stuff of bookstore shelves and TV screens.
Colliding with his own teammate during a game in 1992, the former New York Jets defensive lineman defied both the odds and experts who said he would be paralyzed the rest of his life.
Two fused vertebrae, extensive physiotherapy and no small miracle later, he was back at the Meadowlands, taking to the field as an honorary captain for the Jets’ home opener the following season.
On Oct. 15, 2016, Byrd was killed on a highway in his home state of Oklahoma when a 17-year-old driver swerved into the oncoming lane.
Thursday would have marked Byrd’s 51st birthday.
“He was more like a big brother than a friend, we were very, very close,” Edmonton Eskimos general manager Brock Sunderland said.
Long before he won a 2016 Grey Cup ring as the Ottawa Redblacks’ assistant GM and moved to Edmonton, where he serves as the youngest GM in the CFL at age 37, Sunderland was a typical, brighteyed 10-year-old who followed his father to work.
A longtime NFL scout, Marv Sunderland convinced the Jets to draft a six-foot-six, 270-pound defensive lineman out of Tulsa. Byrd was drafted in the second round, 42nd overall, in 1989.
“Fast-forward to 1990, I’m 10 and we go down to a game in San Diego. At the pre-game meal, I’m sitting with my dad kind of daydreaming, so Dennis walked over, picked me up and said, ‘Do you want to go have ice cream with me?’ Who wouldn’t?
“We just hit it off, he was the most down-to-Earth, easygoing, genuine person that you could ever meet ... Dennis had the innate ability to make everyone he interacted with feel like the most important person in the world and he made me feel that way. He became my hero at age 10.”
Only this Superman was human. After registering 27 sacks over his first three seasons with the Jets, his promising career came to an end in a game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Nov. 29, 1992. Byrd collided with fellow Jets defensive end Scott Mersereau, breaking his fifth cervical vertebrae.
“Obviously when he got paralyzed, it was devastating,” Sunderland said. “But the type of person he was, literally on the field when he was paralyzed, he said, ‘I’m glad it’s me because I know I could handle it. I don’t want to see a teammate go through it.”
But, as tends to happen, the two drifted apart. Sunderland grew up, was a receiver/returner with the University of Montana until knee injuries forced him off the field. He became scouting director for the Montreal Alouettes before returning to the Jets where he spent six seasons in various scouting roles.
It was there during the 2010-11 season that Sunderland bridged the distance between Byrd and his former franchise.
“I hadn’t spoken to him for three or four years at that point and then he called me out of the blue before the divisional playoff game against the Patriots,” Sunderland said. “He said, ‘Look, I’m going to send you something overnight. Call me when you get it because I have special instructions.’
“... I opened up the package and it was the jersey he was paralyzed in and there’s a note to (then head coach) Rex Ryan. I’m kind of blown away by it, it literally still has blood on it. It’s the jersey and the handwritten note basically said: ‘Rex, tell the team that if I can walk again after being quadriplegic, you can beat Tom Brady and the Patriots.”
Byrd’s speech had grown men in tears before the Jets carried the artifact out for the coin toss on the way to dispatching the Patriots 28-21. The following year, the Jets retired his number.