A Mother's Horror & Her Son's Devotion

Cassandra Gardner did not see her son's NFL-record 109-yard return of a field goal at Minnesota this past Nov. 4.
Gardner, Antonio Cromartie's mother, was in a hospital, sedated after an ordeal two days earlier that allegedly involved her being kidnapped by her estranged husband.

When Gardner later watched a recording of Cromartie's amazing grab and run, she was overcome.

“My baby was running, trying to get home to his mama,” Gardner said yesterday. “That's what I was thinking about when I watched it. To me, that's what it looked like. He was trying to get that game over so he could get to his mama.”

Cromartie did go home to Florida that night, staying until Wednesday. The next week he made his first NFL start, intercepting Peyton Manning three times.

“The football field is my comfort zone,” Cromartie said yesterday. “Everything that goes on outside of football, I just get to block out and play ball.”

Cromartie will be back in Tallahassee again this week, testifying in the kidnapping trial of Willie Colson, who Gardner said forced her from her home with a gun around 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 2, saying he was going to kill her and then himself.

Jury selection began yesterday and the trial is set to begin Thursday. Gardner and Cromartie are scheduled to testify.
“I'm still going through it,” Gardner said.

Details of the case were unavailable yesterday. The ordeal first was made public in a story posted on the Sporting News web site yesterday. Cromartie is the subject of the magazine's cover story this week.

Cromartie and Gardner spoke with the Union-Tribune yesterday afternoon.

Cromartie learned of his mother's predicament shortly before the Chargers took off from San Diego on Nov. 2, and he had a plane reservation to fly from Minnesota to Tallahassee.

Even after getting to Minnesota and learning Gardner was all right, Cromartie had to be talked out of leaving by Gardner.

“I still wanted to be with her and make sure she was OK,” he said.

Gardner said one of the first things she did when she was freed by Colson was to try to get in touch with her son.

“I knew he wouldn't be thinking about the game,” she said.

When she finally got hold of Cromartie, she told him to stay and play.

Cromartie said he was able to put his worries aside for a few hours that Sunday.

“The biggest thing was she was OK,” he said. “I was just praying she was going to be OK. Then when I got on the field, I had no worries. I am able to separate life from football. On the football field I have no worries.”

He said yesterday he still worries about her.

“You always worry about your mom,” he said. “I can't say as much as I want to because she's on the East Coast and I'm on the West Coast. We still talk on the phone every single day.”

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