This is the story for Greg Gadson, a commander from US amry who helped motivate a losing team.
A 1989 graduate of West Point, Gadson recalls vividly the night that his convoy was attacked. It happened on May 7 around 9:30 p.m. The convoy was moving between bases when the explosive device detonated.
The force ejected Gadson from his vehicle. As he lay in the road, he remembers not having his rifle and expecting the enemy to attack.
"As I was laying there I thought to myself: 'God, I don't want to die here in this country,"' Gadson said.
Bleeding badly, his legs seriously injured, Gadson lost consciousness and was revived by a sergeant.
"The last thing I do remember in Iraq was the helicopter coming to get me, hearing the helicopter coming," Gadson said. "I don't remember anything after that."
Four days later, Gadson was being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. His left leg had to be amputated above the knee about a week later. Gadson and the doctors decided to amputate the right one shortly after that.
"It was going to be a cosmetic leg," Gadson said. "It was not going to be of any use to me. I felt the quality of my life would be better with prosthetics."
Over the next month, Gadson had plenty of visitors, including Giants receivers coach Mike Sullivan, a West Point classmate.
Sullivan told Coughlin about Gadson last week, mentioning that the team might benefit from hearing him speak.
"I wanted the team to hear from a real hero," Coughlin said. "We can learn so many things about a person who has been through an extremely difficult part of his life."
It was a message the players appreciated.
So the lieutenant colonel who lost both legs when an explosive device detonated near his vehicle on patrol in Baghdad spoke from his heart. He spoke of concentrating on the mission, never giving up and believing in each other.
"One of the things I told the team is I love football," Gadson said Monday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from Fort Belvoir in Virginia. "It has been a big part of my life and it still is from the standpoint of how I am fighting through what I am going through now and how I lived in the Army.
"I don't want anyone to misconstrue that football is like combat," Gadson said, "but I told the team is that it's the same type of emotional investment. If you put yourself in anything, these kinds of things demand your all."
Gadson currently spends three to four hours a day working out. The rest of the time is spent with wife Kimberly, son Jaelen and daughter Gabriella.
"I am not bitter," said Gadson, who fought in the first Gulf War, and served in Bosnia and Afghanistan before his recent tour in Iraq. "I don't have any regrets. My life had been a good life. Like any life, there are ups and downs and challenges. My faith, honestly, and my family and friends have carried me through this."
His speech helped carry the Giants for a week in the 2007 season and win SuperBowl
The force ejected Gadson from his vehicle. As he lay in the road, he remembers not having his rifle and expecting the enemy to attack.
"As I was laying there I thought to myself: 'God, I don't want to die here in this country,"' Gadson said.
Bleeding badly, his legs seriously injured, Gadson lost consciousness and was revived by a sergeant.
"The last thing I do remember in Iraq was the helicopter coming to get me, hearing the helicopter coming," Gadson said. "I don't remember anything after that."
Four days later, Gadson was being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. His left leg had to be amputated above the knee about a week later. Gadson and the doctors decided to amputate the right one shortly after that.
"It was going to be a cosmetic leg," Gadson said. "It was not going to be of any use to me. I felt the quality of my life would be better with prosthetics."
Over the next month, Gadson had plenty of visitors, including Giants receivers coach Mike Sullivan, a West Point classmate.
Sullivan told Coughlin about Gadson last week, mentioning that the team might benefit from hearing him speak.
"I wanted the team to hear from a real hero," Coughlin said. "We can learn so many things about a person who has been through an extremely difficult part of his life."
It was a message the players appreciated.
So the lieutenant colonel who lost both legs when an explosive device detonated near his vehicle on patrol in Baghdad spoke from his heart. He spoke of concentrating on the mission, never giving up and believing in each other.
"One of the things I told the team is I love football," Gadson said Monday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from Fort Belvoir in Virginia. "It has been a big part of my life and it still is from the standpoint of how I am fighting through what I am going through now and how I lived in the Army.
"I don't want anyone to misconstrue that football is like combat," Gadson said, "but I told the team is that it's the same type of emotional investment. If you put yourself in anything, these kinds of things demand your all."
Gadson currently spends three to four hours a day working out. The rest of the time is spent with wife Kimberly, son Jaelen and daughter Gabriella.
"I am not bitter," said Gadson, who fought in the first Gulf War, and served in Bosnia and Afghanistan before his recent tour in Iraq. "I don't have any regrets. My life had been a good life. Like any life, there are ups and downs and challenges. My faith, honestly, and my family and friends have carried me through this."
His speech helped carry the Giants for a week in the 2007 season and win SuperBowl
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