Life, death and resurgence: Al Blades Jr., once a baby in the UM Canes locker room, is back
Saturday, like every other day, Katisha Rose will tell her 22-year-old son Al Blades Jr., a Miami Hurricanes cornerback and son of late UM football star Al Sr., the love of her life, how proud she is of him.
Then, they will reflect on what would have been Al Sr.’s 45th birthday, which, sadly enough, is the day on which he died in 2003 after celebrating his 26th birthday. The car struck a bridge abutment and plunged into a Miami-Dade canal, where Al Sr. and driver Martel Johnson drowned.
The younger Al on Saturday will also see his dad’s older brother Brian, 56, a former Hurricane and longtime NFL receiver, and maybe chat with his dad’s other brother Bennie, 55, a former UM safety who won the 1987 Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back and later was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Al, called AJ by his family, was 3 when his father died and he was told that “Daddy went on an airplane to see God.’’ But the green-and-orange legacy had already been imprinted on his psyche. His charismatic, fun-loving, driven daddy carried baby Al into the locker room regularly as an All-Big East safety during his last two seasons in 1999 and 2000.
The baby is now a chiseled 6-1, 188-pound young man about to enter his fifth season following two physically and emotionally difficult years that began in November 2020 with COVID-19 that caused myocarditis — inflammation of the heart wall — and continued with lingering groin problems and ultimately sports hernia surgery on September 28, 2021.
“My son is very, very strong,’’ Katisha, an accountant for an aerospace company, told the Miami Herald. “But we had a very, very, very rough year with COVID and myocarditis and some of the things people don’t know we heard behind closed doors — what doctors were saying about the possibility of him not being able to play football again.
“Anybody who knows me knows that I’m a woman of faith and woman of prayer. I spent last year doing a lot of praying, a lot of checking up on his mental well-being. We are beyond blessed and I am beyond grateful and excited for the new season.”
Blades met the media March 11, the third session of spring practice and the day before spring break began. He is fit and healthy and vibrant and ecstatic to be back. “I feel amazing,’’ he said. “I feel blessed. ...Of course I’ve been through a lot of stuff, but it doesn’t really matter. ...I’ve always loved the game. Any narrative you see around me, it is what it is. Spending that time away, if anything it allowed me to find myself more but just kind of grow outside of the game.
“But this is my life. Football is a part of me.’’
All-American
Blades, a high school Under Armour All-American who grew up in Fort Lauderdale and graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas, played in all 13 games in 2018 as a UM freshman and started seven of his 13 games in 2019. He had 36 tackles his second season and ranked second on the team with two interceptions, not to mention his six pass breakups and blocked punt. But 2020, despite another two interceptions and a team-best seven breakups, ended with a thud when he contracted the coronavirus and was very sick from it, his mom said. The myocarditis diagnosis, which doctors told him “threatened his heart,’’ Katisha said, came in early December 2020. He wasn’t cleared until just before the 2021 season.
“He wasn’t able to work out, run, jump, be with his teammates, pretty much do anything,’’ his mom said. “When he was able to come back there were other issues stemming from COVID that people weren’t aware of. I’m not a social media person and I always tell my son that you don’t have to explain things to people all the time. People were attacking him and saying he didn’t love football anymore.’’
The situation was exacerbated by a lingering groin injury, which affected his play the first four games of 2021, when he was hurting. He finally had the season-ending surgery just three days after the fourth game, and is now not only clear of any lingering effects, but is heart-healthy and couldn’t be more thrilled to get going. He’s practicing on the outside at cornerback and inside at the “Star” nickelback position, as well as playing special teams.
“He’s had a rough two years,’’ said Brian Blades, who is retired and has been like a second father to Al Jr., and also has a son Brian II who plays cornerback for FIU. “He’s doing a lot better after what he’s been through physically and mentally. I just hope we’re able to get back to our winning ways and keep each other accountable.’’
Bennie, the dean of discipline at Central Charter School in Lauderdale Lakes, said he’s “extremely excited” for his nephew. “I know he’s had it tough. As an athlete, when things are out of your control, it bothers you more than anything else. He fought through his own little personal demons and he’s going to be a better ballplayer for it.”
Father and son
People who knew Al Sr. are astounded by the similarities between father and son, though Al Jr. is not as “dramatic’’ as was his dad,’’ Katisha said. “He has the charisma, the comedic side,’’ she said of her son, who is caring and confident without being cocky. “But Al was a lot louder.’’
“Ed Reed will tell you this, too,’’ Bennie said. “They have the same demeanor. They have the same zest for competition. That’s one of the things I love about my nephew. He doesn’t back down from a challenge. Little Al is a bit more contained than dad was. Dad grew up in that era where he saw Jerome Brown and Mel Bratton and Winston Moss and Alonzo Highsmith and all those guys when me and Brian were down there. So he got that side.’’
To help alleviate the stress and earn money during his painful period, Blades, a good student who is expected to earn his degree next spring, began streaming himself playing video games. His mom said a number of UM followers told him he didn’t love football and needed to get on the field.
“You ask 90-percent of the team,’’ Blades said last week. “They go home and play video games. The only difference is I turn on the camera when I do it.’’
‘Have your faith’
“We were never vocal about it because that was our private business,’’ Katisha said of the hardships Blades faced the past two years. “They had no idea how much time we spent in doctors’ offices, at cardiologists. I said, ‘’Turn the noise off, get in your bible, have your faith because God has the final say.’’
Blades, who on Tuesday will be back on Greentree Field for spring practice session No. 4, was asked if he talks to other players about branding and social media opportunities.
“Of course,’’ he said. “I advocate for them all the time. At the end of the day, that field is what’s going to make us brand ourselves. Being in your playbook, being able to build your identity on the field — because no one’s going to listen to your story if you’re not successful out there.
“... We’re definitely being comfortable in the chaos out there every day, just building the backbone to our defense...Whenever a doctor tells you you can’t play football and you get back, it’s a blessing.
“I’m still rolling.’’
This story was originally published March 17, 2022 at 10:21 AM.
