The Ties That Bind a Father and Son

By Jason La Canfora
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 18, 2007

When Shawn Springs walks into the locker room at Texas Stadium, he is 7 years old again, scampering around his idols, tossing around a football with the sons of other players. It is Thanksgiving, and Springs has made the annual holiday trip to Dallas to be with his father, Ron, a gregarious Dallas running back on a powerhouse team. He will eat a late turkey dinner after the game and sleep in his Cowboys pajamas at night. When Springs returns to the stadium today as a member of the Washington Redskins, those childhood memories will be tinged by painful realities: That his father will be lying in a hospital 15 minutes away in a coma. That doctors there are saying he is essentially brain dead. That someday soon the Springs family might turn off the machines that are keeping him alive.

"My dad's in a situation where you're faced with a tough choice, and you pray for a miracle that God's able to heal him," Springs said. "Then at the same time you've got to be realistic and say, 'What if that doesn't happen? Are we willing to come look at dad every day and say he's a vegetable, or do you say maybe it's time for us to make another decision?'

"And that might be taking him off the feeding tube, but no one wants to feel responsible for that, or feel like they are killing somebody, and that's a tough decision, because you can't really win. The right thing to do, maybe it's that he wouldn't want to live like this, then you think about my stepmom, and she thinks about it like, 'If you did that then you would feel like you're giving up on him.' "

On Oct. 12, Ron Springs, 51, went to Medical City Dallas Hospital for the removal of a cyst from his arm. Even after suffering from severe diabetes, having a foot and toes amputated years ago and undergoing a life-saving kidney transplant in March, the removal of a cyst was supposed to be routine. But during the procedure Ron Springs suffered cardiac arrest, experienced severe seizures and stopped breathing for at least three minutes, Shawn said. He has been on life support since.

If it were his choice alone, Springs says he would let his father pass, believing that's what his father would want. But he understands that the issue is not as clear for his stepmother, Adriane, who has been married to Ron for 26 years, and his sisters, Ayra, 21, and Ashley, 17. There is no standard cadence to acceptance, no defining pace to grieving, and so the family continues to convene at the hospital, with Shawn shuttling back and forth to Dallas every other week, keeping vigil, talking to Ron, praying for a recovery, and weighing cruel medical eventualities.

Family Reunion

The phone line pulsed with anticipation from Dallas to McLean on Oct. 11. Shawn and Ron Springs were planning to finally get together again, with Shawn having been busy playing cornerback and Ron having been tied up with meetings and travel for his foundation to combat kidney disease and diabetes.

Ron Springs had not seen his son play in 2007, but hoped to fly to Washington for the Oct. 21 game against Arizona, one stop on an odyssey merging his two great loves, family and football. The itinerary included Ohio State's homecoming game Oct. 20 -- Ron Springs was among the former Buckeyes team captains being honored that day -- and while in Columbus he would also watch Shawn's twin 9-year-old sons, Samari and Skyler, who live in Ohio, play football for the first time.

They laughed and joked as they planned into November, all the way to today's game in Dallas. Ron was to join former teammates Tony Dorsett and Everson Walls -- the man who gave Springs his kidney -- at Texas Stadium, for the Redskins' last game there before the Cowboys move to a new stadium.

"He was so excited about everything coming up," Shawn Springs said, reclining in his basement theater at his home in McLean last week after spending two hours studying Dallas game film. "He was about to make his tour and he was going to catch my game and go to Ohio State and see my little boys play -- he was so excited about finally seeing them play. We were talking about it on that Thursday night, and he had just signed a deal with Albertsons [a large grocery chain] for his foundation and was excited about that too. He was feeling good, really happy and everything like that."

Shawn, 32, halfheartedly cajoled his father about flying to Green Bay to see the Redskins play the Packers on Oct. 14, already knowing the response.

"First thing he said was, 'Hell no, I ain't going, ain't nothing up there in Green Bay," Springs said, mimicking his father's old-school drawl. "You tried to get me up there when ya'll played there in the playoffs with Seattle."

Then Roncasually mentioned a minor surgical procedure he was going to have the following morning.

Two days earlier, on Oct. 9, doctors had attempted to remove the cyst under local anesthesia. But the pain persisted and he would have to go under full anesthesia to remove the portion still embedded in his skin. "He was like, Whatever, it's nothing," Springs said. "He didn't think nothing of it."

Grim Diagnosis

Springs said the family does not know what went wrong during the procedure. Springs flew with the Redskins to Green Bay on Oct. 13. At the team hotel he felt drained and dehydrated, so Redskins team physician Tony Casolaro administered an IV and answered Shawn's questions about the likely severity of the brain trauma suffered by his father. Given his father's medical history, the situation was bleak.

At 6 a.m. Sunday, seven hours before kickoff, Springs arose suddenly. He could smell his father, the scent unmistakable. "It was like my dad was lying in bed beside me," he recalled. "Then I looked up and all of a sudden the smell was gone."

Shaken, Springs was unable to get back to sleep.

It was the longest day of his 11-season career. During the national anthem Springs could not concentrate on the game. He looked across Lambeau Field to the Packers' sideline, where quarterback Brett Favre stood with his teammates. Springs suddenly recalled a "Monday Night Football" game in 2003, when Favre threw for 399 yards and four touchdowns one day after his father's sudden death.

"Usually, when I play, during the game it's really easy to block everything out," Springs said. "That's in my personality, everything's so nonchalant and chill. That Sunday was the first time I was like, 'Damn, you never expect nothing like this.' One of the things that kept me going was just watching Brett Favre from across the field, and I remembered him throwing for all of those yards when his dad died. So I was like, 'This is the right thing to do. This is what my dad would want me to do.' "

Springs flew home with the Redskins following an emotional, 17-14 defeat, packed a bag and departed for Dallas early Monday morning. Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs excused him from the team for as long as necessary and team owner Daniel Snyder offered the services of his private jet (Springs declined). He spent that week with his family at the hospital.

"I know we've had some ups and downs, but Coach Gibbs and the Redskins really supported me through this," he said.

When Springs arrived at the hospital his father had virtually no brain activity, and the doctors offered a grim diagnosis. "They pretty much said in the best-case scenario my dad would be a vegetable," he said, "And then we all had to sit around and voice our opinions of what we would do and stuff like that."

Gregg Williams, the Redskins assistant head coach-defense, sent text messages of support, as did teammates. "We let Shawn know he has our support," safety Pierson Prioleau said. "And at same time we want to help make this his escape from something that's probably inescapable."

On Oct. 20, Springs decided he would fly back home and at least attend the Redskins' game against Arizona at FedEx Field. As he reported to Redskins Park for meetings Saturday, the Ohio State football team in Columbus, Ohio, wore No. 24 stickers on their helmets to recognize Ron Springs during the game he was supposed to attend.

Williams relaxed his edict that those who do not practice during the week do not play in the game, and Springs suited up for the Cardinals. He figured he would participate in a few plays at most, but cornerback Fred Smoot injured his hamstring early in the game, and Springs found himself racing onto the field for regular duty. He fretted about his leg muscles tightening up.

"I was like, 'Please don't let me tweak nothing,' " he said. "For a week I did nothing but eat snacks out of a vending machine and lay around the hospital."

Springs took part in about 55 plays, and thrived in the 21-19 Washington victory. On Monday, it was back to Dallas, staying at a hotel , seeing Dorsett and Walls and getting to the hospital early to talk to his father, unsure if any words were getting through.

"He's handled this remarkably well and played at a very high level," Williams said. "His leadership has been outstanding."

Every week since the surgery, Springs has spent Monday and Tuesday either in Dallas or in Williamsburgwhere he meets with his grandmother, aunts and uncles from that area, making plans should his father pass away. Wednesdays are the most draining. He is usually the first person at Redskins Park to begin studying film to make up for lost time, guzzles coffee, takes dips in hot and cold tubs and tries to keeps his mind active when feeling worn down.

But this week there was little solace in routine. This was Dallas Week, when Springs's past and present always collide.

An Inspiring Father

The story of Ron and Shawn Springs is well known, how they toured the country promoting kidney and diabetes awareness this summer, hitting network morning shows. In Dallas, it's still big news, so the interview requests for Springs leading up to today's game came in deluges.

It's a vital game for the Redskins' playoff hopes, against an 8-1 division foe.

Springs knows he will see Walls, Dorsett and other longtime family friends, and he hopes he doesn't break down from the memories, the sound of his father's voice ringing in his head, chiding him, "How you gonna play? What's your game plan?"

Everything about Dallas reminds him of his father, especially at this time of year. Shawn Springs was raised by his paternal grandmother in Virginia and Maryland, but Thanksgiving meant Texas Stadium and dad. "The holidays will be tough," he said.

It was Ron Springs who taught his son to analyze game film in grade school, and helped him to choose cornerback over running back, where NFL careers are shorter. When Springs wasn't certain football was his calling, his dad bought him a drafting table to pursue architecture; it remains a passion and Springs played a major role in the design and layout of his home.

Ron Springs moved to the Washington area to take a coaching job at Howard University when Shawn attended high school in Silver Spring, nurturing him through those years. He helped steer Shawn to Ohio State, gave Coach John Cooper an earful when the staff redshirted his son his freshman year, and assured Shawn he was ready to leave the Buckeyes for the NFL after his junior year. His dad also pushed Springs until the day he finally got his college degree in sociology in 2003.

When Shawn was a free agent in 2004, Ron Springs charmed Gibbs and Snyder during a dinner at Morton's and, though, a "die-hard" Cowboy, Shawn said, urged him to sign with the Redskins. "I knew Coach Gibbs would work him hard and make sure he gets the most out of him," Ron Springs said in an interview in 2005. Gibbs still chuckles about Ron Springs's "funny bone" and says he keeps him in his prayers.

When Ron Springs's kidneys were failing, his son offered to walk away from his multi-million dollar contract and donate a kidney. His father refused. Now, Springs worries that his dad will never see him play again, and recently signed a living will stipulating that he not be placed on a respirator.

"This made me more aware that I never want to put anybody in this position," he said.

The doctors say Ron's condition is relatively stable, and he seems at peace, as if in a deep sleep. So Springs will continue to travel to Dallas, cherishing each morning spent by his father's bedside, and dreading the decisions yet to be made.

"Whatever God wills, that's what it's going to be," Springs said. "One of these days he might wake up and be at my game, and one of these days I might be missing for a couple of days because I'm at a funeral. It's possible. That's a realistic thing, and the longer it goes the tougher it gets, but what do you do? I guess all you can do is play football, and try to live a normal life."