Claridge's Corner

November 17, 1999

"I have started and finished every game in my career, from wire to wire, so far (knock on wood). When I was a freshman and sophomore my shoulder pop out and I'd run to the sideline and they'd pop it back in and I'd run back out on the field. Last year against Washington I rolled my ankle really bad. I couldn't even feel my foot. I went to the sideline and told the trainers "Don't cut my tape off, just tape over my shoe." So they put like two or three rolls of tape around my shoe. I took a few hard steps on the sideline, you know, like I was firing off the ball. It hurt so bad that I thought that I couldn't finish the game. Then Coach Greatwood came over to me and said "Are you going to finish this game or not?" And I said, "Does the clock say 'zero?'" That was my answer. I went back out there. We had about two minutes remaining and all we had to do was run out the clock. I was in the huddle in tears. My ankle was killing me. But there was no way I was going to let my teammates down. If a coach puts me in a game to start, they're counting on me to finish. I won't let them down, because they wouldn't let me down.

Playing is all about a sense of pride. I come from a blue-collar family. My grandfather worked every day of his life. My mom had me when she was 20 years old, then had my brother, then got divorced. She went back to school at 28 years old, worked full time, raised me and my brother and graduated from Michigan with honors. There wasn't always much to eat, and we didn't always have the best things..all these things give me a sense of pride and it's shaped how I carry myself. I feel like I've had to prove people wrong all my life. When I was in eighth grade, the teacher asked me what I wanted to do and I said that I wanted to play football on Sundays and my teacher said "Well, not many people really do that Travis, so think of something else." I said, "Okay." In ninth grade, my math teacher (I'm not very good at math) told me "Travis, you have a good heart, you're a good guy, but I think you should drop out of school and get a job." My counselor in ninth grade had me in a couple remedial classes because my test scores weren't so good, so I asked "Will these classes hurt my chances of going to college and play football?" and my counselor said, "You're not going to go to college and play football." I said, "Okay."

So whenever someone tells me that I can't, I just work harder. I want to prove them wrong. My hometown has one main street and one stoplight and used to have only one school, K-12. I played sports with every kid in school. When I left the town, I had a sense that people didn't like me because I left and I wanted to be somebody. I wonder all the time what kids I grew up with are doing. If I never played football I'd probably be working on a farm or working construction for my stepfather.

Anyway, beat the Bruins!"