Nice Pennington article

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/08/s...34653fc4292dc9&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Resilience Is a Pennington Trait Passed From Father to Son

CLINTON, Tenn., Sept. 6 ? His throwing shoulder felt right for the first time in more than two years. But as quarterback Chad Pennington walked off the field after a Jets practice last month, he could not shake the feeling that something was wrong at home.

He pulled out his cellphone and dialed his mother?s mobile number. It was half past noon on Aug. 16 when Denise Pennington?s phone rang. She said she took a deep breath when she saw that the caller was her son. Why was he phoning in the middle of the day?

?What?s up, Mom?? he said when she answered. ?Something told me I should call you.?

So began a conversation that Denise Pennington had hoped to avoid having for another few hours, until she had a better idea how bad the news was. It added to her distress, knowing that what she was about to tell her son would rub out the ebullience he had radiated since his pain-free performance in a preseason start at Tampa Bay five days earlier.

Pennington?s 59-year-old father, Elwood, had a major heart attack and was resting uncomfortably at Parkwest Medical Center in Knoxville, just a few miles from their home. As Denise Pennington briefed her son, her husband was wheeled into a hallway on his way for an angioplasty.

?Chadwick,? she told her son, ?you need to say hello to your daddy.? She held the phone to Elwood?s ear. Pennington?s father, a longtime football coach, groggily greeted his son by saying, ?How?s camp going??

On Sunday, Pennington will make his first N.F.L. start in nearly a year and the first one in his home state when the Jets open the season at Tennessee. No matter the final score, it will go down as a triumphant return for Pennington, who has defied great odds in coming back a second time from a shoulder injury that has effectively ended the careers of many quarterbacks.

The only people not surprised by Pennington?s return are the ones who watched him grow up and can see how much he is his father?s son.

Elwood Pennington defied death, and since his release from the hospital two weeks ago, he has been disregarding his doctor?s orders to rest. Last week, after Denise hid his car keys, Elwood called a friend to give him a lift to Webb School, where he used to coach and where his son attended high school, so he could watch a middle school football practice. He was demonstrating a bootleg drill when Denise, an English teacher at the school, happened upon the scene and nearly had a heart attack herself.

She dragged her husband home, and during the 20-minute drive, she alternated between anger at his sneaking out when he was supposed to be resting and delight at seeing the sparkle in his eyes. ?We weren?t sure he was going to make it,? she said.

With Coach Eric Mangini?s blessing, Pennington flew to Tennessee within hours of hanging up with his mother and spent the next three nights sleeping on the floor of his father?s hospital room. His mother and his sister, Andrea, who is three years younger, were also there.

Clark Wormsley, who played football under Elwood and coached Pennington at Webb, was among those who stopped by to pray with the family. ?Chad was making sure his mother and sister were O.K.,? Wormsley said. ?But he looked worried and tired.?

Elwood said he never doubted that he would pull through. ?I didn?t feel like it was the end,? he said. ?I didn?t feel the urgency like they did.?

On Tuesday night, Elwood was puttering around the kitchen of the warm cocoon of a home that he and his wife moved into last year. The large house sits on five acres and is a photographic shrine to the family. Since Elwood?s hospitalization, friends and neighbors have dropped off enough food to feed an N.F.L. team.

Even so, as the chief chef in the family, Elwood insisted on preparing a dinner of broiled salmon, stir-fried vegetables and baked potatoes. As he moved nimbly among the floral arrangements, balloon bouquets and get-well cards that spilled into the kitchen from the family room, he explained the appeal of cooking. ?It?s a way to wind down,? he said.

The meals are just one way he nourishes his family. Elwood has always been generous in doling out the meat-and-potatoes advice on life, which might explain the wireless headset that appears to be an extension of his right ear.

When Pennington injured his shoulder in a game last September against the Jacksonville Jaguars, sustaining his second torn rotator cuff in less than a year, his father was the one providing a steady stream of encouragement.

?We?re big on keeping our heads up and not feeling sorry for ourselves,? Elwood said. ?I told Chad there?s always a way back. Just keep working hard and smart.?

Now, Pennington, 30, is the one giving his father heaping helpings of hope. ?I think the tables have turned a little bit,? Pennington said.

...next post page 2.

 

Four days after the heart attack, once Elwood’s vital signs had stabilized, Pennington sat down with his father’s doctor and grilled him about the cardiovascular rehabilitation schedule. As she looked on, Denise got an idea of the intensity her son must bring to his football meetings.

After consulting with the doctor, Pennington went straight to his father’s hospital room, where he found his father in a medication-induced haze. Pennington, who is married with two boys — Cole, 2, and Luke, 3 months — pulled up a chair next to his father. “Dad, now listen to me,” he said. “You have got to focus. I’m leaving tomorrow to go back to New York because your doctor says you are out of the woods.”

He said he was halfway through his impassioned lecture when his father nodded off and started snoring. Elwood said he got the message. “I thought I was at Jets camp and Coach Mangini was giving me a pep talk,” he said.

Pennington checks in with his father regularly. This is what he hears: “I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine.” The news of his father’s escapades, like the trip to the Webb football practice, he gets from his mother.

Denise should be easy to spot Sunday at LP Field. She will be the one in the No. 10 Jets jersey with “Pennington’s Mom” stitched across the back. To the best of her knowledge, about 100 family members and friends will make the three-hour drive to Nashville for the game.

Elwood is not supposed to be one of them. Relaxing in the living room after dinner, he said he did not receive medical clearance to make the trip. His doctor said the day might be too taxing on his heart. Elwood shrugged. “I think I could handle it,” he said.

No sooner were those words out of his mouth than Denise, who was seated across from him, leveled him with a don’t-even-think-about-it stare.

Elwood plans to have a dozen friends over to watch the game on the flat-screen television in the family room. “I’m going to have a stag party,” he said with a wink.

The invitees will be the same group of friends he was meeting for breakfast at a popular eating spot in LaFollette, a 45-minute drive from here, the morning he had his heart attack. Their swiftness in summoning help is why Elwood is still around.

It will be another poignant picture in a home full of them, the comeback patient of the year candidate cheering on his son, a candidate for the N.F.L.’s Comeback Player of the Year award.

“I think you just realize how fragile life is and how it can be taken really quickly,” Pennington said. “And so you cherish the moments you get to talk to him on the phone. You cherish the times that he comes up to see you. It keeps you from taking that for granted.”

 

Then we're screwed. If Penny gets hurt I'd say theres a decent chance that it's because the o-line is not blocking, and if that's the case, they'd be better off throwing Ramsey in there then Clemens. Don't want to get the kid killed.