Oct. 17, 2005
By Greg Knowlden
Assistant Sports Information Director
Things were looking up for the Lafayette football program on April 30, 2005. The Leopards had met a few days before to elect their captains for the upcoming season and chose seniors Maurice Bennett and David Nelson as their leaders. They had just completed their first spring practice as Patriot League champions in 10 years, and the annual Maroon-White intrasquad scrimmage held that day showcased the 124th edition of the team that would take the field in the fall.
A month later, nearly everything changed.
Nelson, a native of Dover, Mass., went home for his brother's bachelor party over Memorial Day weekend. On Sunday night, one of his friends called him to get together with the guys before summer started.
"I was a little apprehensive, I just wanted to stay in, but we went out in Boston and had a good time," Nelson said. "At the end of the night, I was just hanging out, eating a cheesesteak, when a guy drove by and started saying stuff to my buddy's girlfriend, and we told him to just keep going."
Instead of continuing on his way, the man got out of his car and approached Nelson and his buddies. The fullback trusted his instincts and stepped between the man and his friends, and a scuffle ensued.
"Things went so fast. He was punching me in the chest and then he was running away. I looked down and I was bleeding, and I said `Brian, I just got stabbed,'" Nelson said.
His friend wrapped his shirt around him, and after two cabs failed to stop for them, a third finally did. They were just blocks from Massachusetts General Hospital, but the trip seemed like an eternity.
"I realized while I was in the cab that I could feel myself dying," Nelson said. "Brian had his arms around me, and I remember dying and feeling helpless while I was in the hands of my friends."
Nelson's chest cavity had filled with blood. Once in the emergency room, he lost all vital signs and lay, dead, for about five minutes.
"A nurse tore my shirt and chest open, stuck her finger in the hole in my heart, and massaged my heart back to beating," he said.
Once he was stabilized, the doctors at Mass. General performed emergency heart surgery. Nelson was out for about seven hours before he woke up, and was kept for observation for four days. Remarkably, he was able to be in his brother's wedding that Saturday.
While he was in the hospital, Nelson received countless phone calls from coaches, teammates, family and friends. Bennett, his fellow co-captain, was among those who got in touch with Nelson almost immediately after the news got out.
"Our first conversation, I don't think we really touched on football," Bennett said. "We talked for about an hour, and just talked about life and the people he had around him."
"It was a regular old conversation like we've always had," Nelson recalled. "Mo and I get along great, and we were just laughing and joking around. I told him I was ready to get back with the guys.
"Obviously football was a major concern, but more than that, I appreciate that every day is a gift from God. I'm so thankful to be brought back, and I'm looking forward to figuring out why I came back."
Nelson was so intent that he would return to the field with his teammates in early August that he didn't suggest to the coaches that he would miss any preseason camp.
"It's no secret that we don't like camp and it's really tough, but I didn't want to be set back," explained Nelson, who had worked out for nearly four hours a day from July 4 through August 1 to get ready for the season.
Amazingly, the concern for Nelson's doctor wasn't his heart, but his ribs. Scar tissue was forming and tearing during the healing process, and it led Nelson to get discouraged as he began his comeback.
"Once the doctor said my ribs were healed, I had to know my pain tolerance," he said. "I was down to 215 at one point (Nelson will play today at 235 pounds) but I jumped into the last week of workouts."
While Nelson admits he was struggling, he passed the conditioning test on the first day of camp and didn't miss a practice in August.
"I feel like the same old guy I was last fall," Nelson says. "To be alive today, it's a miracle, but the healing process was also a miracle. The top cardiologist at Mass. General said it was the perfect spot to be hit in my heart, and I was incredibly lucky. I don't know what it was like in that room since I wasn't conscious when it happened, but I couldn't be more thankful for the wonderful people who were around me then. My friends, the doctors, that nurse - it's all hard to fathom."
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When the Leopards have taken the field in 2005, everything has unfolded the way Bennett and Nelson envisioned it more than four months ago. Well, almost everything.
"When we went out to meet with the officials in the first game, they asked who was going to talk during the coin toss, and we kind of looked at each other and weren't sure what to do," Nelson laughed. "I couldn't care less, but Mo said I should do it so it's just stuck. I went with `tails never fails' but I missed, and the next road game (at Georgetown), I missed with heads, so I don't know. Maybe I'll just stick with heads."
Which means that the Leopards are 0-for-2 on the coin flip, one of the few things they haven't executed flawlessly all season. Lafayette is 5-1, and 2-0 in the Patriot League, as head coach Frank Tavani and his team defends its championship.
"The team's vote for captains before the spring game was the most clear cut since I've been here," said Tavani, who is in his sixth season at the head of the program. "We're really looking at captains from freshman year on, and it builds from there. Both Maurice and Dave have worked so hard for four years and our football team recognized that.
"Mo is one of those special kids who comes along every so often. He was a leader on his high school football team, he's started for us for three years as an all-league player, and he's also incredible in the classroom. He comes to play every week, especially on game day, and it's obvious to the common eye that he's outstanding."
Those on the national level have recognized Bennett as well. A first-team All-Patriot League selection a year ago, he was named a Preseason All-American and placed on the watch list for the Buchanan Award, which goes to the top defensive player in I-AA football.
The middle linebacker was recently honored as a semi-finalist for the 2005 Draddy Trophy, known as the "Academic" Heisman, that is awarded to a player for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary community leadership.
An Economics and Business major, Bennett's academic success includes a 3.33 GPA and a Wall Street internship last summer with Credit Suisse First Boston. He has accepted a job offer with the firm but knows that if everything works out, a possible career in the NFL awaits.
"There's a short window of a year or two to find a team and establish yourself, and if I'm able to do it, I'll go with it," Bennett said. "Otherwise, it feels good to know where I'm going. I can always go back to work."
On the field, the problem for opposing offenses is that Bennett always knows where the ball carrier is going, and they're rarely able to stop him from getting there. He led the Patriot League with 119 tackles a year ago and is on top again this year, with 65 stops through six games.
Bennett is one of a handful of impact players on a unit that ranks among the nation's leaders in both scoring and total defense. The presence of classmates Blake Costanzo and Dion Witherspoon at linebacker, along with an experienced secondary and a veteran defensive line, has Lafayette setting its goals high. The Leopards also have 2004 Lehigh game MVP Brad Maurer at quarterback to guide the offense.
"We went into last year saying `let's win this league,'" Bennett said, "but we didn't hear any talk about the playoffs. We got there and played Delaware tough, but it's not enough. We'd like to end our season playing in Tennessee."
For Lafayette to reach Finley Stadium at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the site of the I-AA football championship game, the Leopards will first have to defend their Patriot League championship. Four goals remain following this afternoon's game with Harvard, culminating with the 141st meeting between Lafayette and Lehigh on Nov. 19 in Bethlehem.
The Leopards will look for inspired leadership from Bennett and Nelson to get them there, just as last year's team turned to co-captains Stephen Bono and Wes Erbe on its way to the championship.
"When Steve talked, you listened," Bennett said. "Wes overcame a lot last year and kept fighting for us. We couldn't have asked for two better captains."
One of the enduring images of the 2004 Lafayette football season is a picture of Bono and Erbe hoisting the Patriot League trophy on a makeshift podium at Fisher Field. Bennett and Nelson hope to make history of their own this season, and they couldn't be more deserving. After all, they've both worked so hard to get there.
