Last year, 10,000 fans at Super Bowl XLIX in Arizona gathered to watch the Wounded Warriors Amputee Football Team play against NFL Alumni in a game of flag football, a game the Wounded Warriors easily won 58-21. In previous years, the WWAFT has played NFL alumni from all across the country ten times as well as the FDNY 9/11 First Responders in 2014. This year, Jesuit was honored with the opportunity to the host the WWAFT versus NFL alumni game.
On March 21 at Jesuit, the Wounded Warriors faced off against former Dallas Cowboys and other NFL alumni, winning the game 54-28 and extending their perfect record versus the NFL alumni to 11-0.
The WWAFT consists of those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and who are now using a prosthetic device in their daily lives. Playing quarterback for the WWAFT was Pro Football Hall of Famer and Dallas Cowboys legend Roger Staubach. After winning the Heisman Trophy at Navy, Staubach graduated and served in the Vietnam War as a Supply Corps Operator. Being a military man himself, it seemed only fitting to allow Staubach to play QB for the wounded warriors.
On the other team, over 30 NFL alumni and former Dallas Cowboys played, including Daryl “Moose” Johnston, one of the greatest fullbacks of all time. During his career, the “Moose” won 3 Super Bowls with the Cowboys blocking for Emmitt Smith, who wouldn’t have been able to become the NFL’s all-time leading rusher without the “Moose.”
After the game, Daryl Johnston was “inspired” by the Wounded Warriors and their courage, saying: “Watching them compete is unbelievable after what they have been through. We don’t come close to the sacrifices they have made. When you get an opportunity to meet them,” Johnston said, “they are some of the best people in the world and they’re as upset about not being able to walk back into battle as anything. These guys are awesome. They are phenomenal.”
Another former Dallas Cowboy who competed in the game was Dale Hellestrae, who played alongside Daryl Johnston on the Cowboys 3 Super Bowl winning teams in the 90’s as a long snapper. Thursday night was the seventh game Hellestrae played against the Wounded Warriors, taking away from each of the games “how humble [the Wounded Warriors] are. How humbled every professional athlete is to get to meet and honor them. They have unbelievably great attitudes. There isn’t any anger or resentment in them.”
The Cowboys first-round pick in 1998 and the 2007 Comeback Player of the Year, Greg Ellis, also was on the NFL alumni team in the game Thursday Night. Ellis played for the Cowboys for ten years as a defensive end and as a linebacker in his latter years on the team.
“It is one of the greatest honors that I have ever been apart of,” Ellis said after the game. “When you think about the guys we are out here supporting, we wouldn’t be able to play football if they didn’t fight for this to be a free country.”
Along with these Dallas Cowboys, other NFL alumni also showed their support for Wounded Warriors including Charles Haley, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Babe Laufenberg, Leon Lett, Jon Kitna, and many more.
