PAYING IT FORWARD
Falcons LB has impact on and off the field
HOUSTON — Paul Worrilow doesn’t know who she i s, or where she lives, and he doesn’t need to know.
It is enough for him to know he helped save a life.
Worrilow is a relatively unknown Falcons linebacker who has beaten odds of his own to reach the Super Bowl. He was an undrafted free a gent from Delaware, by way of Coffeyville Community College in Kansas, who simply refused to allow the Falcons to cut him four years ago.
He joined the Be The Match Foundation Registry, which helps those suffering from blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma, as a potential bone marrow donor. In May of 2011, four months after joining as a sophomore at Delaware, he was summoned.
“I got a call that I matched a young woman in her young 20s [23] with leukemia, so they asked if I wanted to donate, and of course it was a no-brainer for me,” Worrilow said. “I didn’t donate bone marrow, but I donated PBSC, peripheral blood stem cells. It’s just awesome, man, the opportunity to help somebody, because people with the blood cancers, things of that sort, they don’t always have a match in their family. They have to look outward for that.”
Worrilow saw first-hand the impact being a donor can make.
“I have a buddy who, at Delaware, matched a lady as well,” Worrilow said. “I think she was a grandmother. And she used to write him a handwritten note, I think it was like once a year. She might still, I don’t know, I haven’t really stayed in contact with him as much. And he showed me. Her thanking him, talking about her grandkids … that’s just awesome. It’s easy for the donor, it’s so easy to have an impact.”
That was just one instance in which the donor met the recipient.
“I just like leaving it as it is,” Worrilow said. “I just like doing it, it’s not to meet anybody, it’s not even to get a story out that you did it. It’s just something that I’m proud I did, and when I talk about it, it’s I want to get more people to join. The more people t hat can join the registry the better.
“I don’t feel like I did anything. You just match and you donate and it’s just …” What do you mean? You saved a life. “It’s a no-brainer,” Worrilow said in a room surrounded by teammates. “I’d like to think anybody sitting in any of these chairs would do the same thing.”
Asked why it was a no-brainer for him, Worrilow said: “I guess it’s the way I was raised. I mean, why not? You know?”
His mother, Mary Beth, joined the registry as well.
“My parents, they would do the same thing,” he said. “Always looking what can they do for others. Very, very selfless people. Always lending a helping hand to people.”
A woman came to Worrilow’s house to give him an injection several days before the procedure at Christiana Hospital in Delaware.
“You just hang out and they take your blood out into a machine, spin it, take out what they need, put your blood back in the other arm,” Worrilow said. “It’s painless, you just hang out, but the magnitude of what you’re doing … it’s very, very little cost to the donor.”
Worrilow grew up in Wilmington, Del., 20 minutes from Philadelphia.
“It was sign with the Falcons or go get a job,” Worrilow said. He signed with the Falcons. “I was fired up to be there,” Worrilow said. “Rookies were getting paid a couple of hundred a week, so I was thrilled about that. I remember I had to borrow money from my mom to drive down for training camp, because I had no money in my account, so I borrowed like a couple of hundred bucks, drove down for camp.” A 12-hour drive. “I don’t know what year, but an old, old Grand Cherokee,” Worrilow said. How many miles? “Above 200,000,” he said.
His own drive to realize his NFL dream soon paid off.
“I didn’t have any college scholarships as well, and I started every game at Delaware,” Worrilow said. “It was nothing new, it’s just kind of always been part of my story.”
Worrilow was displaced in the starting lineup by rookie Deion Jones following a pair of 120-tackle seasons and was hampered early this season by a groin injury. But his play isn’t about carrying a chip on his shoulder from being overlooked time and time again.
“I put in a lot of hours, and that’s not because I want to prove people wrong, I just love ball, and it’s always been that way,” Worrilow said. Now he has Tom Brady to beat. “My first start was against Brady,” Worrilow said. “I remember getting texts from back home, like buddies watching the game, ‘Hey, that’s Brady you’re going to start against today.’ I think people outside made it a bigger deal than it really was. When you’re on the field ball is ball.”
Brady can make history by winning a record fifth Super Bowl crown.
“There’s a game that’s got to get pl ayed,” Worrilow sa i d, “so any records and things of that sort can get discussed on Monday.”
Somewhere out there, a young woman might be watching Super Bowl LI, unaware Paul Worrilow saved her life. He was asked what he would tell her.
“I don’t know. You just hope for the best, that’s really it,” Worrilow said. “You just hope for the best.
“Because that’s why you do it.”