Wounded Warriors real heroes of Super Bowl week

The red team’s roster for this football game during Super Bowl week is filled with big names you probably recognize. The quarterback is Jeff Garcia, who played for the San Francisco 49ers and four other NFL teams. Former Dolphins O.J. McDuffie and Patrick Surtain, Oronde Gadsden, Sage Rosenfels and Jeff Dellenbach are also among the 15 or so players on the team.

These guys no longer play in the NFL, but once upon a time they were your football heroes.

The blue team’s roster is filled with men and women you probably never heard of. They never played in big stadiums in front of large crowds. They never signed milliondollar contracts.

But the anonymous team also is made up of heroes because most served America in Iraq or Afghanistan. Some saw the Twin Towers fall and immediately volunteered to fight for their country.

And all paid a price.

The blue team’s fastest player has only one arm. A wide receiver is missing his right leg below the knee.

One of the star defensive players, B.J. Ganum, lost half his left leg and a good friend on Thanksgiving night in 2004 when the vehicle he was driving rolled over an improvised

explosive device (IED) in Iraq. Two other marines were wounded in that incident.

So yeah, this game matches heroes against heroes.

Football heroes against America’s heroes.

The flag football game at Nova High School’s football field in Davie on Wednesday evening was officially billed as the Wounded Warrior Amputee Football Team against the Miami Dolphins and NFL alumni team.

And so you know before the drama overcomes you, the Wounded Warriors won the game, 38-28. More on that in a bit.

More importantly now is that this game, played annually during Super Bowl week, was a grand success. Maybe 1,000 to 1,500 people showed up for the charity event.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas football team was honored before the game, as was the memory of Douglas athletic director Chris Hixon — the man who selflessly sped into the school to confront a crazed shooter at the expense of his life that terrible day in 2018.

Hixon, few people are aware, served in the Navy — five years on active duty and 22 years in reserve.

“You’re going to see NFL legends you know and a lot of men and women you don’t know that did a lot for you,” Ganum said before the game. “And all of them will be having fun playing America’s sport.

“I think it’s good to bring people together around football and veterans and freedom. What’s not to like?”

The pros obviously agree. This game has previously drawn greats such as Roger Staubach, Randy White and Charles Haley. Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer, who was on the Green Bay Packers’ Super Bowl teams in 1967 and ’68, showed up to this one.

“It’s a pleasure to honor these guys who richly deserve it,” Kramer, 84, told the crowd. “It’s a pleasure to be here. It’s a pleasure to be anywhere.”

That drew some chuckles.

And so did the action. ESPN’s Kenny Mayne, who was a quarterback at UNLV in the early 1980s, was something of a ringer. He called a flea flicker on the first play but his pass was intercepted by Rosenfels.

No problem. The NFL alumni had too many men on the field so the turnover was wiped out. Except Mayne threw another interception, one that counted, three plays later. And again, Rosenfels came away with the pick.

Maybe the longtime backup quarterback should have tried defense back in the day.

Rosenfels did throw a 10-yard TD pass to Garcia. And Mayne converted a fourth-down opportunity by throwing one of his three touchdown passes.

So it was a close game early.

But the Warriors got some breaks. A field goal attempt before halftime that clearly sailed wide right was counted. And the NFL defenders kind of just watched as one of the Wounded Warriors’ kids ran through their secondary for a touchdown late in the game.

But, you know what?

That questionable field goal was well earned during house-to-house fighting in Iraq.

And that uncontested TD run was a small payback for the battles fought in Afghanistan’s bloody valleys. So all good.

“We’re living in a time right now where we have a lot of hawks in Washington D.C. who want to send our kids off to die,” said Montel Williams, a television talk show host who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and served in both the Marines and Navy.

“It’s a real good thing to make sure we see what warfare does. We need to see it in our face. When you see how these guys have survived — they’re strong and they want to be contributing members of society — it’s the resilience that is born into them after they leave their boot camp and they serve.”

Williams’ latest TV show is called Military Makeover. He and his crew find a worthy military family and they invade their home and remake it stem to stern.

Debbie Hixon, Chris’ widow, saw such a makeover of her Hollywood home. And during this event she sees how a football game can help heroes like her late husband.

“For the wounded warriors out here, I think they look for distractions to forget what their daily struggles are,” Hixon said. “My struggle is different but I understand that because every day I look for distractions so that I can keep moving forward.”

Armando Salguero: 305-376-2387, @ArmandoSalguero