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Derrick Ward overcame gangs, abuse to play huge role for Giants
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Derrick Ward, who evades Panthers’ defenders on Sunday night, once ran for his life.
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Long before Giants running back Derrick Ward learned to sidestep tacklers in the NFL, he was dodging bullets in south central Los Angeles.
“It was Bloods on one side of the street and Crips on the other side,” said his sister Tameka Ward, 25. “I remember me and him actually sleeping on the floor because there were shootings.”
Ward once admitted rubbing elbows with gang members as a teen, according to published reports.
He witnessed a murder. And for part of his childhood, he locked horns with his father who abused his stepmom.
“It was a really broken home,” his sister told the Daily News Monday.
Their father was strict with Derrick and often took out his anger on his wife. “He had to restrain my dad from actually killing her,” Tameka said of her brother.
Ward’s journey to the Big Blue began as early as 7 years old. His dad bought him equipment and pushed him to excel.
After witnessing the 1992 Los Angeles riots up close and personal, the family moved to Moreno Valley, where he was a star on the high school team.
That led to a scholarship to Fresno State University, where he earned All-American honors. But the speedster was sacked by poor grades and injuries, nearly ending his career. “I contemplated giving up,” Ward recently told The News. “I was burnt out.”
Ward replaced the gridiron with the sound stage, landing a gig as a production assistant on the set of the hit TV show “Friends.”
“I did everything,” he recalled. “Coffee, lunch, deliver scripts to actors’ houses.”
But the itch to get back on the field overwhelmed him, and Ward found himself at Ottawa University in Kansas - a small college he had never heard of.
“It seemed the game was in slow motion for him,” said Patrick Ross, his coach at Ottawa. “His charismatic personality won over everybody on our football team.”
Ross wasn’t surprised the 230-pounder became the latest Giants hero Sunday, rushing for a career best 215 yards in the Giants’ overtime victory over the Carolina Panthers. The reigning Super Bowl champions earned the NFC’s top seed and home cooking throughout the playoffs.
Ward was drafted by the Jets in 2004, but was relegated to the practice squad. The Giants picked him up and he steadily moved up the depth chart, becoming the “Wind” in the team’s “Earth, Wind and Fire” running attack tandem.
The 5-foot-11 running back fractured his fibula late last season and had to sit out the Giants’ historic playoff run and Super Bowl victory.
“I’m so excited for him, because I know how hard last year was,” Audie Attar, the ballplayer’s marketing agent, said.
Ward, who’s single and lives in Weehawken, N.J., will become a free agent next season. Whether he returns or not, the Giants are sure to ride his sturdy shoulders this January, thankful for their new star’s improbable ascent.
“You never know how these things ever turn out,” Attar said. “I truly believe he’s just coming into his own.”
