Avengers Get a Lift From Lucas’ Father
Avenger players returned to football Tuesday, remembering Al Lucas and carrying with them the words of his father.
“He told us that it was a tragedy that he had to be here today, but that there was still a practice to go to, still a game to be played,” kicker Remy Hamilton said. “He said that Al would have wanted us to go on.”
David Lucas, a state representative in Georgia, came to California to take his son home. Al Lucas died during the Avengers’ game against the New York Dragons on Sunday, leaving his teammates grieving and searching for answers. David Lucas gave them some direction.
The Avengers went through a light one-hour practice, their first step in preparing for Sunday’s game at Nashville.
“Mr. Lucas was amazing, what he did and what he said,” Coach Ed Hodgkiss said. “It helped me a lot, and it helped the team. I can stand up and say those things, [owner] Casey Wasserman can say those things, other players can say those things. But to have him say it meant something more.”
Avenger players and their families will hold a private memorial service today. In New York, Dragon players were also trying to come to terms with the tragedy Tuesday.
Lucas collided with Corey Johnson, who was returning a kickoff, and Mike Horacek, who was blocking on the play. On Tuesday, Horacek told New York Newsday that the play seemed routine.
“I went up through a hole with Corey behind me, and I thought Al was going to take me high and at the last moment he went low,” Horacek said. “So I wasn’t expecting that. Usually a bigger guy will take on a smaller guy up top. I definitely felt my right knee strike him on the helmet. When I got up, I saw him lying there and I just thought he got the wind knocked out of him.”
David Lucas was accompanied to Los Angeles by his wife, Elaine, and their son’s wife, De’Shonda. They will take Al Lucas’ body back to Macon, Ga., where tentative plans are to hold a memorial service Friday at Northeast High, Lucas’ alma mater, and the funeral Saturday.
Wasserman and Avenger officials were working, meanwhile, to coordinate efforts to establish a trust fund for Lucas’ wife and his 2-year-old daughter, Mariah.
Results of the autopsy will not be available until after neurological, pathological, toxicological and microscopic studies are completed, in two to four weeks, a spokesman for the L.A. County coroner’s office said.
Doctors who treated Lucas have said he probably died of a spinal cord injury.
The Avengers said they’d been comforted by David Lucas’ visit.
“He told us that was his baby boy, but that Al would want us to continue,” lineman Fred Ray said. “He said that if it had been someone else and Al was here, he would be preparing for next week.”
Still, there was a void on the practice field.
“It was hard out there,” Ray said. “You could forget for a minute. But I missed that voice and laughter that was always out there with Al.”
