Orlovsky’s foundation is hope giving back

Dan Orlovsky will not forget the moment when he decided a thrown football could complete a mission.

He was staring out the windows of the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, a college quarterback trying to answer questions none of us can.

“I had gotten closer to some people who, unfortunately, had been constant visitors to the hospital,” Orlovsky said this week. “There was one family, I’d rather not get into too many specifics, who I had built a relationship with, and I was going to visit the child. They said he wasn’t going to make it. While I was there, the child passed.

“I wound up in a room with the mother for a half-hour. It was one of the most difficult things ever in my life, to see a mom in so much pain, trying to comfort her. Leaving that room you question so many things. Why was I so blessed? Why did this kid, who hadn’t done anything, deserve this? Why his family?” So there he was, the Shelton star who stayed home and made Connecticut football cool, staring out those hospital windows. Through Connecticut and the Walter Camp Foundation, Orlovsky already had grown popular as a visitor to sick kids, but surely, he thought, there was more.

“I decided God has blessed me with football,” Orlovsky said. “I will use it in some way to help others. Yeah, that was my moment.” Orlovsky was scheduled to fly to Philadelphia Wednesday to spend part of Christmas with his fiancee, Tiffany Lesher. They met at the wedding of former Connecticut teammate Jeff Fox. He will return to Detroit tonight, return to the Lions, return to the NFL franchise that has become a national punch line. If the Lions lose Sunday at Green Bay, they will go down in history as the first NFL team to finish 0-16. Late-night comedians poke fun at them. Newspaper columnists mock their futility. Their long-suffering fans, well, they suffer.

And there he was Sunday, the Connecticut kid who went on to the Lions in 2005, standing tall, looking into the cameras after the 42-7 loss to New Orleans, using words like “awful” and “embarrassing.” Orlovsky had been pulled in favor of Drew Stanton after completing only 10 of 23 passes and throwing two interceptions. A backup his first three seasons, Orlovsky started his first game as an NFL quarterback on Oct. 12 after Jon Kitna went on injured reserve. He went back out with a thumb injury when Daunte Culpepper came out of retirement. He returned when Culpepper hurt a shoulder. Orlovsky has had some good games and not-so-good games. Either way, the Lions have lost.

He has enjoyed good moments and, well, a moment he did not realize he had stepped out of the end zone for a safety.

“I will be on bloopers shows forever,” said Orlovsky, who is remarkably good humored about the play.

He will start this final game, and folks around the country will watch the Lions with the curiosity of drivers rubber-necking at accidents. In an uncomfortable sort of way, Orlovsky’s national profile has never been higher than this week. He has been handed the keys to Detroit’s tragicomedy. He accepts it as a career challenge. He will not let it define him as a man.

“I love football,” said Orlovsky, a free agent at the end of the season. “I have given it my all. If anybody works harder than me, studies more than me, prepares better, I’d love to meet him. I also know I’m either going to be good enough to play and be successful in the NFL or not. I have a firm and strong confidence. I have goals people will probably laugh at.

“But at the end of the day, I cannot allow football to define me. These things I’m doing with the foundation, 15 to 20 years from now, they are going to be more important than any touchdown I threw. I’m hoping by getting some playing time, people seeing me, they’ll be more in tune and step forward as donors.” From that cathartic moment in college, the Dan Orlovsky Foundation was founded in 2006. He takes pains to mention all his board members. Their goal is to bring hope to youngsters in Connecticut who desperately need it, while providing a role model they deserve. There’s a wine-tasting event, a golf tournament, a bowl-a-thon, a tailgate party at a Connecticut basketball game. There are turkeys handed out at Thanksgiving and gifts at Christmas for the needy. There have been flat-screen TVs, laptops, motorized Powerwheel cars donated to the hospital. Orlovsky’s generosity is substantial

“I think people in Connecticut know me well enough to know I have big dreams,” he said. “We really want to do something that is lasting.” Orlovsky believes he has found that something in a room. Not just any room.

“An awesome room,” Orlovsky said.

Architects have been consulted. The budget formed. A room at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center will be torn up and in its place will be something wonderful for kids in most need of something wonderful. Some who can barely walk, some who cling to precious life.

“When you’ve got to such a great hospital, you don’t question the care, but if a kid is there for two weeks, two months, they are stuck in their rooms,” Orlovsky said. “We want to give them a place just to be kids, to have fun, not to think they’re in a hospital. There’d be interactive computers, TVs, video games, videographies, all built in a stadium replica.

“We want smiles.” The cost of those smiles is between $300,000 and $400,000.

“It’s a big task,” Orlovsky said. “But I also understand God has given me more than I deserve, and I’m determined to give back to others.” Maybe this Christmas week you’ll be among those NFL fans who will look at Dan Orlovsky and believe he will suffer the ultimate in ignominious defeat. He will know better. He knows greater victories lie ahead.