Je’Rod Cherry’s Super Bowl XXXVI ring holds a special place in his heart for what it signifies. Teamwork. Dedication. Self-sacrifice.
It is one of his most treasured possessions, which is exactly why he’s giving it away.
While many retired players have been forced to auction their Super Bowl rings to make ends meet, Cherry is putting his to a different use.
He plans to raffle it off for charities dedicated primarily to children, particularly those kids exploited and traded as slaves in parts of Africa and Asia.
“This ring has a lot of sentimental value to me, obviously,” said Cherry, a financial analyst splitting his time between Boston and Ohio. “I just felt that if I was going to involve myself in something like this, I’d have to be sacrificial.
“This ring represents what made us such a great team in 2001. We were a collection of people working together, not individuals. I want to use this ring to say to the world that we do care, that we can do amazing things if we come together in support of great causes. Our cause was to win a Super Bowl, but this is bigger. This is helping people in extreme need.”
Cherry and his wife Samua were attending a youth conference at their church in Cedarville, Ohio, earlier this year. There they say roughly 2,000 kids raise $96,000 in just a half hour, but fall short of their goal to help build orphanages in Cambodia and Thailand, where children are kidnapped as sex slaves.
“My wife and I were moved,” Cherry said. “We have four young children, and it’s only through the grace of God that they aren’t in that situation. We wanted to know what we could do to bring it to attention that children were being preyed on and exploited in that fashion.”
On his way out of the event, Cherry was stopped by a young woman, who asked him in jest if he’d sell one of his Super Bowl rings to help. He told her he just might.
“I found my wife and mentioned it to her and she fully agreed it was a great idea,” Cherry said. “I told (the organizers) what we were going to try to do.”
Cherry owns two Super Bowl rings from his time with the Patriots. He was a reserve defensive back and special teams player on both the team that beat the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI and the squad that defeated the Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII.
He considered raffling his second ring instead of his coveted first, but decided if he was going to help, he’d have to make a sacrifice.
“It’s hard parting with that ring,” Cherry said. “But at the same time, when you think about it, if enough people participate in this raffle, someone buying five tickets can save a child from poverty or rescue a child from slavery or some form of torture. It just gives them hope.”
Among the charities being supported are Asia’s Hope, Boston for Africa, Feed My Starving Children, the Italian Home for Children and the Celebrities for Charity Foundation.
It was important to Cherry to raffle the ring and not auction it, thereby giving everyday fans a chance to own a piece of history. Tickets can be purchased online at NetRaffle.org for $2 apiece, with a minimum purchase of five. The raffle closes on Nov. 27 and all proceeds go to charity.
The winner will receive the Pats’ original Jostens ring. The 14-karat white gold ring features 142 diamonds, red garnets and blue sapphires in the Patriots logo, platinum, a large marquis diamond and two tapered baguette diamonds.
Cherry is a Berkeley grad with a degree in political science who added a Masters of Education in 2000. He has four kids — Jay, 9; Isaac, 3; Naomi, 2; and Joelle, 7 months — and has transitioned seamlessly to the business world.
“I’ve been blessed,” he said. “Not all former players are so fortunate.”
His post-career success has put him in a position to give back by giving away something that means incredibly much to him.
“The memories are still here and always will be,” he said. “It’s cool to think about what we accomplished. We took a bunch of guys that probably had no business whatsoever being there all the way to the top and closed the deal.
“Maybe one of the reasons we did win was so I could have possession of this ring, and use it to help people down the line.”
Palmer: Cassel will do job
Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer knows Matt Cassel about as well as anyone. The two were teammates for three years at the University of Southern California and remain close friends.
So while Palmer is disappointed to see a knee injury end Tom Brady’s season, he’s excited at the opportunity for Cassel.
“We roomed on the road and were roommates on campus, so I know him real well,” Palmer related via the Bengals PR staff. “I think he’s going to do real well. I’m excited for him for the opportunity, but I’m also excited to see what that offense is like, because he’s an athlete. A lot of people know he can throw the ball, but he can really run around and make things happen. And that offense hasn’t had a quarterback like him in it.”
The quarterback the Pats are missing was pretty good, as Palmer well knows, and he hopes Cassel doesn’t try to do too much.
“The most important thing for him, and I keep telling him, is to not try to be Tom Brady,” Palmer said. “Just be himself. If (option No.) 1 and 2 aren’t there, take off and run, because he’s fast, he’s physical and he can get to the edges.”
Patriots fans don’t have much insight into Cassel’s personality, but Palmer does. And he hopes his former teammate doesn’t change a thing.
“That offense has gone into so many games where defenses just expect the ball to be thrown,” Palmer said. “I think he’s going to do a great job of just being Matt and not being Tom. He needs to be the leader that Matt is. Those guys on the team know that he’s wild and crazy, and loud and obnoxious. Just take that to the field because that’s who he is. He needs to play like himself. It’s like the Aaron Rodgers situation, where he can’t be somebody else.”
WRs ON BRADY
ESPN analysts and former NFL wideouts Keyshawn Johnson and Cris Carter offered their analysis on what missing Brady will mean to the Patriots in a conference call with reporters last week.
“If they lose their next four games, then there’s no interest,” Johnson said. “People don’t care. The story will be written — loss of Tom Brady, loss of season. Now if Matt Cassel puts some games together like I envision looking at the schedule, then obviously the interest will be, ’Oh they can plug another quarterback in the late rounds and it’s the system. It’s not so much Tom Brady. It’s the system. It’s the coaches.’
“That’s what you’ll start to hear if Matt Cassel has some success and that will drum up even more interest in what the New England Patriots are capable of doing as the season goes on.”
Added Carter:
“It’s impossible for them to play the way they have been playing,” he said. “Last year they were in shotgun formation 70 percent more than any team in the history of football. The reason why you do that is because you have one of the elite athletes that’s ever played quarterback and you happen to have two No. 1 receivers in Wes Welker and Randy Moss.
“So they will change and the game plan that we saw after Brady went out totally changed. The Patriots do it better than anyone. They make a game plan to try to win a game. If they feel they have to throw it 40 or 50 times they do that. Now in all reality, Cassel didn’t look good in the preseason. Now they have to depend on their running game.”
It’s their call
Panthers beat writer Darin Gantt of the Rock Hill Herald conducted an interesting bit of research after Carolina offensive coordinator Jeff Davidson, a former Patriots assistant, decided to move to the sidelines to call the team’s plays.
Davidson had been in the press box, where it seemed the majority of coaches once called their plays. But times have changed. According to Gantt’s work, nine offensive coordinators call their plays from on high.
Those nine are: Cincinnati’s Bob Bratkowski, Cleveland’s Rob Chudzinski, Kansas City’s Chan Gailey, Miami’s Dan Henning, Oakland’s Greg Knapp, Chicago’s Ron Turner, Detroit’s Jim Colletto, St. Louis’ Al Saunders, and the Jets’ Brian Schottenheimer.
The other 23 teams are run by someone on the sidelines, including the Patriots’ Josh McDaniels. Part of the disparity is due to the fact that nine head coaches call their own plays: Denver’s Mike Shanahan, Houston’s Gary Kubiak, San Diego’s Norv Turner, Green Bay’s Mike McCarthy, New Orleans’ Sean Payton, Philadelphia’s Andy Reid, Seattle’s Mike Holmgren, Tampa Bay’s Jon Gruden and Washington’s Jim Zorn.
They obviously have to be on the sidelines. Davidson, a former NFL lineman, made the move to feel more connected.
“The biggest thing was, I missed feeling the game,” Davidson said. “There are certain things you get from players on the sidelines as they come off. The adjustments, the speed with which you get things done, all those things combined.”
The 4,800 curse
Only four quarterbacks in history have topped 4,800 passing yards in a season. Dan Marino in 1984 remains the all-time leader with 5,084 yards, followed by Kurt Warner in 2001 (4,830), Tom Brady in 2007 (4,806) and Dan Fouts in 1981 (4,802).
Brady becomes the third of the four to have their season cut short in the ensuing year. Warner went 0-6 in six starts, thanks to a broken finger in 2002 and has never been the same quarterback.
Fouts’ follow-up year was curtailed by the NFL strike that season, but at least he had a consolation prize: being named MVP of the curtailed season.
Marino is the only one to get off the hook. He threw for more than 4,100 yards in 1985.
