Pro Football Career
In 1987, Woodson was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers as the 10th overall draft pick. He returned punts and played cornerback for Pittsburgh through the 1996 season. Woodson and the team initially had difficulty coming to terms, and he held out of training camp. To date Woodson is the longest draft choice holdout the Pittsburgh Steelers have ever had. The Steelers and Woodson finally came to terms when he signed his contract on October 28, 1987. Woodson was a World-Class 110 meter hurdler. During his holdout,he ran track on the European track circuit. Woodson had the fourth fastest 110 meter hurdle time in the world. He won the bronze medal at the 1987 USA Olympic festival,and won medals in several IAAF Grand Prix meetings in Europe. Woodson is one of only two athletes in history to be inducted into the pro football hall of fame and also earn a world ranking in the high hurdles. On November 22, 1987 he recorded his first career interception when he picked off a Boomer Esiason pass.
A banner that hung for years in Three Rivers Stadium stated: "Rod Is God". In 1995, Woodson became the first player to return from reconstructive knee surgery in the same season. He tore his ACL against the Detroit Lions trying to tackle Barry Sanders in the first game and returned to play in Super Bowl XXX between the Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys 19 weeks later. In that game, he broke up a pass intended for Michael Irvin, hopped up and pointed at his reconstructed knee.
In a game against the Houston Oilers, Woodson hit Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon on a cornerback blitz. The hit gave Moon a concussion and forced him to leave the game.
Woodson's career took a nomadic turn after free agency from Pittsburgh, after the Rooney family elected not to renew his contract over a pay dispute as well as the salary cap. (The team had a similar dispute with Franco Harris in 1984 and later with Alan Faneca in 2008.) Although he remained to raise his family in Pittsburgh and later made amends with the Rooneys, he hopped between three additional franchises, becoming one of the few modern cornerbacks to successfully make a transition to the safety position, following in the footsteps of Ronnie Lott. Woodson signed with the San Francisco 49ers for the 1997 season, the Baltimore Ravens for the years 1998 to 2001 (where he won Super Bowl XXXV), and the Oakland Raiders for 2002 and 2003 (where he appeared in his third Super Bowl). In the Raiders 2002 Super Bowl season, 37-year old Woodson led the NFL in interceptions (8) for the first time in his career. His last interception came on November 16, 2003 against the Minnesota Vikings’ Daunte Culpepper. Throughout his NFL playing career Woodson would fly home to suburban Pittsburgh on a weekly basis to be with his wife and five children.
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