Schlesinger's courage rewarded

DETROIT - Anyone who has followed Cory Schlesinger's football career knows the Detroit Lions fullback possesses a certain degree of courage.

It takes valor to make a block, carry the ball or catch a pass against defenses in the National Football League.

Imagine doing all of that with a cracked vertebrae, a separated collarbone or a pinched nerve in the neck.

That's all the injuries Schlesinger, the former Columbus High and Nebraska standout, had to endure during his eighth season last fall with the Lions, who struggled to a 3-13 record.

Schlesinger's courage was rewarded recently when he was named the Lions' winner of the Ed Block Courage Award, an honor given to one player on each of the NFL's 32 teams.

The Ed Block Courage Award, named after the longtime trainer with the Baltimore Colts, goes to the player on each team who, in the eyes of his teammates, best exemplified and displayed courage.

"It's a great honor to receive," said Schlesinger, who received the award along with the recipients of the other 31 teams during a banquet recently in Baltimore.

"But to receive that award, you had to have gone through some adversity. I had some injuries that were pretty painful, but not too serious for me to miss any games."

Another former Husker, Kyle Vanden Bosch, was the Arizona Cardinals' winner.

Schlesinger suffered the cracked vertebrae during the Lions' Oct. 13 game at Minnesota. But the Duncan native played on, separating his collarbone from his sternum the following week against the Chicago Bears.

"The first game after I did the collarbone was the most painful game," Schlesinger said of the Lions' game the following week in Orchard Park, N.Y., against the Buffalo Bills. "I didn't want to fall down, I didn't want to get hit, I didn't want to do anything."

The only injury that forced him to miss playing time came in the second quarter of the Thanksgiving game against the New England Patriots when he suffered the pinched nerve in his neck.

"On national television, the only game where everybody is watching," Schlesinger said. "It was more than a stinger in that I lost strength in my right arm."

Despite the injuries, Schlesinger still played in all 16 games and refused to sit out of practices. He finished with 139 yards on a career-high 49 carries and two touchdowns, scoring on a 2-yard run in the season opener against Miami and on a 1-yard run during a Sept. 22 home game against Green Bay.

He also had 35 catches for 263 yards, one year after putting together career highs of 60 catches for 466 yards.

"I don't know what makes me do what I did," Schlesinger said. "The pain is quick; it came and it went.

"It was hard for me to sleep on my side. I had to sleep on my back."

The award is given by the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation, which began as a Baltimore-based foundation. It has since grown into a national network of organizations, located in 15 NFL cities, devoted to helping abused and neglected women and children and their families.

Detroit's organization is the Detroit Lions Courage House and HAVEN. It was during a fundraising banquet for the HAVEN that Schlesinger learned he was the Lions' courage award winner.

A video about the HAVEN and him winning the award made him feel awkward.

"The video started with a little girl making a 911 call, and you could hear her mother getting beat up in the background," Schlesinger said. "Then about four ladies who had been the victims of spousal abuse talked. Then they announced, 'here's the recipient of the courage award,' and they show me. It was kind of embarrassing to go up there and say anything about myself after watching that.

"My pain is going to go away. I just play a game. What these people go through is real life."

Schlesinger and his wife, Karen, have two girls - Natalie and Leah. He said having a family makes him feel even worse for the abused kids.

"When you see these kids, they look happy," Schlesinger said. "But when we talk to the directors, and they tell the kids' stories ... these kids have lived a lifetime and they're only 10 years old. They've seen more abuse then a lot of us will ever see.

"I can't imagine hurting any other kid, let alone my own. But that's what some people do. ... I just can't fathom that."