Aging, aching Godfrey isn't retiring type
Charger still driven to ring up title

By Kevin Acee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 22, 2006

The passion tumbles forth in every word, every gesture and in every
Sunday on which Randall Godfrey drops his battered body into a uniform
and plays another game of this brutal sport.

Again and again, Godfrey simply says, “I want it so bad.”

His teammates know it, because he tells them and because he shows them.

“Being in the league for four years, my body is already hurt,”
linebacker Stephen Cooper said. “I don't even start. He's started for 11
years. I know it's wearing and tearing on his body. We see it during the
week, but when Sunday comes, he doesn't feel that pain. He just goes out
and plays.”

By now most people know that Godfrey put off retirement to escape a
different kind of pain. The murder of his sister in November 2005
haunted him, and he said he needed football to soothe his torment.

But he also knew he still could play, and this Chargers team kindled in
him a desire to accomplish more.

Godfrey didn't retire after the 2003 season in part because he had let
himself down, missing a crucial tackle near the goal line in the
playoffs while with the Seattle Seahawks. It was a team letdown in 2005
that left him wanting more.

“I want it so bad,” he said. “I want to get me a ring out of this.”

Godfrey has started all but one game this season, and though he has been
slowed by various maladies that tend to plague 33-year-old linebackers,
he actually appears to be playing better as the year wears on. While his
success can be attributed in part to the different schemes coordinator
Wade Phillips has employed of late, Godfrey is clearly playing in a
higher gear than he was last season or earlier this season.

He was inactive two weeks ago against Denver with a calf strain and is
working only sparingly in practice this week because of a balky
hamstring. He looks forward to a possible bye in the playoffs.

“I need it,” he said. “It seems like I'm pulling something every week.”

When he has played the past month, he has been inspiring.

He had two sacks Sunday against Kansas City. He had 13 tackles Nov. 26
against Oakland, including a sack and three tackles behind the line.

Godfrey was among the most outspoken Chargers about opportunity lost in
'05, and he is constantly reminding teammates of the urgency of their
present opportunity.

“I haven't been around anything like this,” he said. “This team is so
good. This team has great players. I'm putting everything I can to put
myself in a position to win the Super Bowl.

“If that's making every tackle on the field, I'm going to try to do it
because I want it bad. I tell the guys every day this could be my last
one. This is an opportunity of a lifetime, and I'm going to play my best
and hardest every game.”

What that takes for a 33-year-old who on some days feels 10 or 20 years
older than that is a lot of extra work. Godfrey had cold laser treatment
in the offseason, and his knees feel better than they have in a few
years – so good that he is talking about delaying that retirement again.

But he also has started 159 games in his career. And while he has shared
time with Cooper over the past two seasons, Godfrey remains an all-out,
punishing tackler who feels the effects of those collisions.

“When he hits people, you know it's Randall,” Cooper said. “If it isn't
Lights (Shawne Merriman), it's Randall.”

All that leads to a lot of time in the whirlpool. He does extra work on
his core at home and also has taken up Pilates.

“I've just got to do it,” Godfrey said. “You just don't know. I haven't
been on a team in this situation. I've just got to do everything I can
to take care of myself. I just want it so bad.”

Kevin Acee: (619) 293-1857; kevin.acee@uniontrib.com

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